


With Bated Breath

by AstrumVita



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Language Barrier, Non-reincarnation, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Realistic, Self-Insert, au-ish
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:00:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 26,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26541040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AstrumVita/pseuds/AstrumVita
Summary: A realistic look at those who appear in the Naruto world. A young woman awakens to find herself in a world she knows nothing about or its language. Not only does she face the task of surviving in a strange and hostile world, but how does her appearance alter the original events in the story - especially with a presence like her own? OC Self-insert
Comments: 27
Kudos: 87





	1. Awaken

**Author's Note:**

> This story is not written for the pleasure of seeing an OC having a blast with the characters and having fun in their world. This is is not a parody of a silly fic. This story is about survival in a completely different reality with all its highly negative aspects as well as those positive ones. I'll be using the realistic route - as realistic as I can without killing off the OC at the very beginning, which, honestly, would been the most realistic outcome if you think about it. I'll be giving you the reader a not-so-pleasant look into the lives of those unfortunate enough to have been taken from our world and placed into another. Canon characters will remain canon but with a touch of realism added to their characters and so on. I will also like to point out this story will contain mature and dark themes as the story progresses to better fit the realistic approach.

**{ epigraph }**

_"One evening an old Cherokee Indian told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people._

_He said, 'My son, the battle is between two 'wolves' inside us all._

_One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity,_

_guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego._

_The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness,_

_benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.'_

_The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: 'Which wolf wins?'_

_The old Cherokee simply replied, 'The one you feed.'"_

_\- Two Wolves_

* * *

●๋•●๋•●๋•●๋•●๋•●๋•

**Awaken**

_{First Cycle}_

Life is like a game of cards.

The hand that is dealt to you represents determinism;

the way you play it is free will.

-Jawaharlal Nehru

●๋•●๋•●๋•●๋•●๋•●๋•

* * *

Nothing disturbed my sleep, fact was, I was not much of a light sleeper to begin with.

Unless a night was noticeably cold to perturb me from my slumber, I would not bothered searching for the blanket that either slipped off from my bed or that I unconsciously kicked off to the end of it. I knew for a fact I could very well sleep through noises and movements that someone could make around me. Because of my past experiences and probably because I also had siblings, I could safely assume that I was a heavy sleeper. Of course, there was an exception to the rule. If any form of light were to hit my face, be it natural or from an electrical source, that would instantly — well, not _that_ instantly — rouse me up from my sleep.

That's exactly was just happened.

Other than the noticeable brightness that disturbed my slumber, the second thing that I slowly noticed was that something was pressed against the side of my face soon followed by the curious whereabouts of my pillow. While not completely in control of my senses just yet, I slowly became aware of a couple of things. One of them being that I caught myself sleeping in my least favorite position — on my stomach. This explained the weird sensation of awkwardly laying on the side of my face. As my brain was slowly taking hold of my body, I felt a crushing pressure against my chest. It was at this very moment when I realized I laid on a unyielding surface that was not the soft comfort of my bed. By then I felt the prickly sting of what I sensationally recognized as grass, but what woke up me up from my zombie-like state were my fingers clutching said grass.

Which brings me to this very moment — kneeling on the very same spot I had awoken from just seconds ago.

I could sense within the depth of my chest the beating of my heart as fear was slowly dawning on me. I ignored the kink on my neck from the awkward position I had awaken from as I took in my surrounding for what must be the tenth time. "What the hell..." I muttered as I brushed off the dirt from my cheek with a swipe from the back of hand.

This was different, _beyond different..._

This was unnerving me.

I slowly took in a deep breath and exhaled. _Okay_. There was no need to freak out just yet. I needed to mentally jot down what was happening here and perhaps come to a conclusion on _how_ I came to be here. It was more than apparent that I was no longer in the comfort of my bedroom and much less in my apartment or any building for that matter. There were no familiar paved black street or vehicles in sight. There was literally nothing that I could recognize as home. The only things that I could were the many trees, the ever-so vibrant green grass that lay beneath me and the occasional shrubs that dotted amongst the tree trunks.

Nature _literally_ surrounded me.

_'We're no longer in Kansas, Toto_ ', was such a fitting and popular expression that crossed my mind. Never thought I would use the term to, literally, express my situation. _Ha_. It was more than apparent that I was no longer standing in the middle of my city. In fact, I had never been in a location where nature was in such abundance; while I was sure that if this was a normal circumstance, I would had actually admired my surrounding. Unfortunately, this was not one of those cases — instead of excitement at the thought of an adventure, apprehension was slowly growing from within.

A sudden gust of wind came rushing from behind me, forcing my dark shoulder length hair to whip wildly around my head. I brushed back the strands of hair away from my face as I looked up towards the sky. With my hands framing my face to keep my hair from continuously whipping around, I noticed the sight of ominous dark gray looking clouds. Huh. Just as before, where this to had been a normal circumstance, I would had not been bothered by the sight of those ominous clouds — in fact, I would had looked forward to what their presence meant. I continued to stared up at the threatening sky, noticing the slow movements of the clouds as they moved across the vast space above me.

It was a definite sign that was rain was coming.

Then it dawned on me as I dropped my arms to my sides.

"This is a prank," I muttered to myself with a light scoff.

It had to be or how the heck did I end up in the middle of nowhere?! This explained everything!

I woke up in a strange location with nothing other than the very clothes on my back, which luckily for me happened to had been pajamas. While I had visited parks before, I had never been to one where nature was this abundant. Other than these two apparent things that I had noticed, there was nothing to contradict my belief that it was _not_ a prank. Nothing really.

Which honestly was good enough to believe in since this was the only rational explanation for being out here.

Surely this prank could not had been pulled off by a single person — unless the person in question was a hero of some kind. This only led me to believe that someone must had masterminded this and rounded up a group of people to pull this 'har har' moment. While I was in no way popular and only had a small group of friends, I found it unlikely they would had been behind it. Let's just say that they _could_ with the help of other people but why would they even do it? My birthday was over two weeks ago and while it would been a good reason to celebrate it by playing a very _amusing_ prank to mark this milestone in my life, it was a bit late to pull off now.

Unless... this was a senior prank of some kind but wouldn't that be the other way around? Play it on the school and not on the students? These last few years in my life and in the world around us had been unexpected with new changes, I wouldn't be surprised if my school peers wanted to try something new and have it go viral. Grab a couple of sleeping students and spread them around in a park, huh? It was likely by chance that I got chosen to have this happen to me. In any case, whoever masterminded this must of had it all worked out and likely had my parents involved in some way to allow it to happen. All I had to do was be asleep for the plan to take hold; bonus for them considering I was a heavy sleeper to boot. Were I not on the receiving end, I would had found this whole thing both clever and amusing.

"All righty then," I said aloud as I turned on my knees. "Was it by chance I got picked or was I voted into this prank? Would make for a fun story to leave Ariadna alone and watch her pathetically stumble across unknown territory, huh?!" My reply came in the form of rustling tree branches around me as the wind was starting to pick up.

I wasn't going to lie but this was becoming irritating. Granted, I was never good with pranks but I supposed no one was when they were on the receiving end. I mean, yes — it would make for a fun story once I got over it. But at this moment I could not 'har har' with the rest of the prankster and go on our merry way.

I sighed deeply.

"Okay, what am I supposed to do? Try and attempt to find the other poor souls and band together? How long are you people going to even stay hidden, huh? Also, I hope you guys were smart enough and checked the weather before you pulled me out here!" I called out, as I positioned myself to sit on my folded legs and relieve the pressure from my knees. "Looks like rain is coming, so I find no purpose to wander around and get myself sick because that would definitely suck as a joke on me, seriously!" A strong gust of wind met me face-on and unlike last time, I felt the cold chill around me.

I was still wearing the same clothes I had gone to bed with, which despite the temperature, was a relief as I could had awoken wearing something ridiculous considering the sense of humor my fellow peers had.

I suppose that's what I deserved for being such a heavy sleeper, huh

It was quite obvious the clothes I wore were not the perfect choice for the weather that I was in, then again, I never really planned on waking up in the middle of the night and venture out into the wilderness with what I slept in. I was admittedly incredibly unsuited for the situation as I was wearing a form fitting white tank and black, lightweight fleece short shorts. It was August and Southern California was experiencing its yearly warm months, so of course I would opt to be as cool as possible even when my parents kept the AC on during the night. Furthering adding to my lack of appropriate apparel for the setting, I had no shoes.

It might not been a big deal for someone who happened to awaken in a location they did not recognized, but shoes were a necessity in my life. Was it even safe to walk around barefooted in this part of the world, especially if people ventured out here? As humans, there was that percentage who weren't environmentally conscious and just dropped their trash anywhere without even bothering to look for a proper location to dispose of it. When I was twelve, I badly cut my foot with broken glass that was shadowed by the large stalks of grass in a park I was visiting. As a reward for the carelessness of another, I received seven stitches because of them. I did not want to revisit that experience again, so I was being overly cautious but for good reason. With no other choice left for me, I stood up which relieved the pressure from my legs.

Even when I stood up to my full height, it did not give me much of an advantage. The sights looked just the same but perhaps I noticed a bit more distance than I did when I was on the ground. Trees still towered over me, the clouds still loomed over my head and oh hey, I was taller than those bushes between those two trees over there. At only 5'2" I was bound to surpass some things around me, including out here in the wilderness.

Another gust of wind rushed past me and instinctively rubbed my naked upper arms to keep the goose bumps away. I did a 360 and looked around me once more.

_Nada_.

Nothing at all.

"Wouldn't had hurt if you guys left me a sweater or even a blanket for me," I said loud enough in case they were actually around. I was starting to get uncomfortable with the idea that, perhaps, they weren't around like I originally thought they would be.

What time was it anyhow? Morning? Midday? My only source that I relied on for time was my phone but considering I was pretty much empty handed here, there was no way I could tell. Perhaps where the sun visible, I could had probably taken a guess depending on the sun's location in the sky but with the dark clouds hovering above me, there was no telling. It was definitely still day considering natural light source still filtered through the clouds. There was no use for me to contemplate on time since there were more important matters at hand. I would deal with night once it came.

In the meantime, I had to do something.

If these people were eager to continue with the prank even with the ominous sky, they would definitely not step in and save me now.

I wasn't in danger just yet.

Haha.

I had high hopes they would step in once the time came to do so. For now, I'm guessing, they rather watch me squirm and become a nervous wreck.

Well, I'm definitely _not_ going to deliver that to them at all.


	2. Rain

**Chapter Two — Rain**

_No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our life are made._   
_Destiny is made silently._

-Agnes de Mille

* * *

I would been foolish to believe the sight of the ever-so-familiar clouds would not _bring_ rain considering how dark and ominous they looked. Luckily for me, there was no shelter in my immediate sight. As much as trees were useful, their purpose would not be much help for my situation; while their branches created a comfortable shade from the sun, they were useless as shields when it came to rain. I was, frankly, stuck out here to be drenched. Knowing my school mates — or at least those who _willingly_ participated in this prank — they would not come and end it just because it _might_ rain. These people wanted to go big and probably viral. I would had probably done the same thing if I was on the other side just to see how far we could go. Now that I thought about it, I would probably need to have a breakdown of some kind for them to step in and end the joke.

Well then, I was not going to give them the satisfaction that they " _had me going for a minute_ " with this prank. As funny as they might think themselves to be for masterminding this, they were not stupid enough as a collective to allow someone to hurt themselves.

"Hopefully not," I muttered under my breath as I tried believe my own statement.

Okay then, I was not going to stand here and wait for the rain to make its first move. So what if I was in the middle of some park? Hiking a bit would not kill me so as long as I used my common sense, right? After all, how big could this place be anyways? Besides, I'm bound to come across some form of civilization out here — whether it be bathrooms or a picnic area with a pavilion. Either one of those two could serve as a temporary shelter against the rain if I were unable to find someone.

Here's hoping though that I _would_ find someone before the rain

* * *

I stepped into a clearing and slowly exhaled through my nose at the sight before me. Trees and more trees with the exception of the circular clearing that I just walked into.

Alrighty then, there's something a _bit_ odd about this. Well, maybe a little _more_ than just a bit.

While I had no physical way to determine the time nor did I possessed an internal clock that would tell me the time of day, I knew for a _fact_ that I must had walked for a while and I say this with certainty. For someone who took an evening stroll around a couple of blocks in the evening as a form of exercise, I can definitely say that I had walked. A lot. I knew I had covered more than a fair distance from where I woken up and while that does not necessarily give a set time since you would need to calculate your pace, I knew for a fact that I'm a fast walker. Had to be in this situation or else I wouldn't be that far off from where I first started. That and because I was hoping the prank would had worn off if I reached an unknown destination point.

Actually, here's where I'm _somewhat_ nervous about — the prank should _had_ worn off by now. Those who were behind it should had appeared with their phones out ready to record the moment they " _ahahaha me_ " before they shared the unflattering video of me trudging in the wilderness in one of the many social media platforms that we're plugged in.

I should actually been home by now.

Yet here I was, standing in the middle of some kind of national park. At least that's what it feels like because I should had come across something by now. A city park goes only so far before you came across one building or another — and I've yet to come across anything telling at this point. Just like I couldn't tell the time, I could not tell how far I've walked from where I started. I couldn't tell anything because everything looked the same! The more I walked amongst the trees, the more trees I came across. Once in a while I would hear a rustling coming from one of the many shrubs that dotted my path, only those noises were the result of some animal scurrying across my path.

The wind was picking up, getting stronger now. There was that familiar scent in the air, the kind that lets you know that rain was coming — which thankfully had yet to make its appearance. I was not too keen on the idea of getting drenched before I could find shelter. The forest, as I was slow to admit it being one, was not inviting than what I originally thought. At the beginning, before my trek, I accepted the challenge of wandering around in search of the others, I dare say I was confident as well. But now? It perturbed me.

One thing for sure was this — I must had walked for a certain amount of time or distance if the pain on my soles of my feet were any indication. Apparently, I was not accustomed to walking in such terrain without shoes. Big surprise, huh? Let me say that while grass does give the illusion the ground is soft enough, that is in fact, an illusion. Sharp rocks, exposed tree roots, twigs and sticks littered the floor and I had the unfortunate chance of unknowingly stepping on them barefooted. Yeah. Not a very pleasant feeling to say the least.

I was not big in directions. As in, I could not physically tell where was what. GPS was my source of directions but as luck would have it, I did not have my phone with me. For lacking that basic necessity, I found it smart to stay in one direction instead of diverging into another. This is what I been doing with the belief I would eventually come across something or someone by now. Even with this weather, I was sure there would still be a handful of people wandering around who'd revel in what nature had to offer.

Now, at this moment , I wasn't too confident in myself for following my 'one direction, one path' rule. I had not come across anything or anyone. The only change from the scenery was this open clearing that could possibly served as a picnic area or at least to set camp. One thing was certain though and that was that I was running out of daylight either caused by the clouds overlapping one another or the day _really_ coming close to ending. Neither choice brought me comfort.

There was no point in standing here and weeping about it.

Well, at least not yet.

* * *

I had slowed my pace considerably, no longer needing to push myself as when I originally started. Had to really, there was no choice now that night has fallen and with no light source, I had to really be careful where I stepped. While the path I had chosen to walk on was pretty even and had not encountered any hills or drops along the way, I still needed to be cautious. That and because there was no moonlight to shed _some_ natural light, it was _almost_ blinding just to walk ahead. With the frequent gust of wind that would shake the trees branches and the rare calls of what I'm assuming was some night bird, walking in the night practically blind was scary as hell. I _had_ to slow down my pace and even so, I kept my arms outstretched just to feel the tree's trunks as an assurance that I wouldn't walk into one.

How long has it been now? Five hours, six?! Better yet, where the hell... "Am I?!" I yelled out into the darkness, into the chilly night air, into this world I had awoken up to. I couldn't hold in the feelings that were slowly dwelling in the bottom of my stomach anymore.

I was utterly alone; hunger prodded my stomach and I was _exhausted_. I could not recall a moment in my life where I ever felt this way. My feet were incredibly sore from all the walking, add to the fact all the stones and sharp twigs I stepped on. Then there was the cold, the awful cold that my flesh was too keen to absorb! The amount of walking I had accomplished did nothing to keep the cold at bay and now that I had completely stopped, this chill was slowly enveloping me as I stood still.

I needed to rest.

_God, how I needed it..._

I caught my breath when a loud crack resonated from above; automatically, I turned to look up into the dark sky with my mouth agape. Not a second gone by before I felt the first raindrop land upon my face. Frantic, I dashed to the nearest tree and pressed myself against its trunk. _Not good, not good, not good._ The branches would only protect me from the rain for so long, I could not trust it to keep my dry. I had to find shelter and fast. Without a second thought, I gingerly stepped away from the tree in search for something better than what nature could provide.

What first started off as slow rain soon turned into pouring sheets. The soft, chilly wind soon turned into strong gusts — neither of those two helped me at all.

My hair was no longer damp but stuck to my face as rivulets of water dripped down the side of it. The little that I wore was soaked through; the cold dampness of the cloth snuggled against my trembling body. Nothing on me was dry and the cold, sharp wind pierced my naked arms and legs as I stumbled amongst the trees. Each step I had taken either led me to a stumble or my feet would sunk into the muddy earth. The coldness now clung to me as the droplets of the rain did to my body — there was no way I could keep myself warm out here.

Catching a cold was the least of my worries now.

_Shit_.

I continued to walk for god knows how long, careful enough so as not to slip or trip; granted, at this point it wouldn't really matter if I fell. I was already soaked through, what else could happen?

It was as I huddled my trembling self to a tree that I saw the one thing I practically gave up hope of ever finding out here. The outline of a familiar frame stood out from the surrounding trees; the dark mass contrasted from the rest, which was how I first noticed it.

"Thank you, thank you..." I mumbled to some nameless, unseen force.

Against my better judgment, I quickly crossed to the nearest tree only for my feet to slip against an exposed tree root. I quickly stretched out my arms ahead, ready to catch myself when I crashed against the tree's wet trunk.

"Okay, okay, all's good," I muttered under my breath as I tried to slow down my breathing. After a few seconds and after I — for some unknown reason — patted the tree trunk, I turned to look past it and laid my eyes at the first shelter I saw today. The shelter in question was nothing more than a tent, a very simple looking tent. Had this been a comical situation, I would had guessed the frame was being held up by a standing stick set in the center. It honestly looked _that_ simple but it was definitely the one thing I been looking for this whole day.

Now that I was much closer, I could not see any signs of life. It was still dark so I could not see any distinguishable item that would led me to believe someone was here. For some reason, I found this a bit odd but I suppose lacking any experiences with camping and basing it all on the movies I had seen, this was not really a proper way to access whether someone was here or not. For all I knew, it could had been abandoned by it's owner, but it was also raining and the person could had decided to leave it and find real shelter?

As I leaned against the trunk of the tree, my hands pressed flatly against it, I watched attentively for a sign of movements from within. It was a stupid thing to do I soon realized as there was no light from within to cast a shadow. This only left me with one thing to do.

I cleared my throat and called out loudly as best as I could, "hello?!"

_1 Mississippi... 2 Mississippi... 3 Mississippi_...

No reply.

I called out again.

_Nada_.

I liked to think that I gave whoever was inside a fair warning. I was purposely noisy, especially so since I had to compete with the sound of rain. Hopefully it was enough to rouse whoever was inside. If they were a heavy sleeper, then they would be in for a rude surprise once they see me standing in front of their tent like Jason from Friday the 13th minus the axe. Heh. One thing was for sure, I was not going to stand out here in the rain while the person inside slept soundly and dry. Desperate times calls for desperate measures. Without a second thought, I pushed myself off from the trunk and quickly, albeit carefully, made my way towards the tent.

Before I stepped forward, I made one last call.

"Anyone inside?" I called out as I stepped around the tent. As before, there was no reply. I walked closer to the entrance and repeated the same words. Again, no reply.

"Okay, I'm coming in an—" I stopped when I caught sight of the entrance flapping with the gust of wind that came rushing from behind me. Huh.

"Interesting," I muttered to myself.

Common sense dictated that if a person were to occupy a tent, they would surely secured the entrance so as to keep the elements outside. Seeing as it was not secured, this only meant one of two things: the occupant had left in search of something and they would soon arrive due to the rain _or_ the tent itself had been completely abandoned. Even with the lack of sufficient lighting, I could tell the tent wasn't in a bad shape to be left alone which could probably, _maybe_ , meant the owner got held up somewhere and they would return once the rain stopped. Were this a different situation, I would had reconsidered what stood before me. As life would have it, I was soaked from the rain, freezing cold _and_ incredibly tired. Not hesitating for another second, I dashed inside.

There was barely enough room to stand, but I managed to firmly closed the entrance as it should had been and keep the rain outside. Granted, the entrance's footing was already soaked, so I settled myself into the farthest corner from it. There was not much distance from where I sat, but it was decent enough to notice if someone was undoing the opening's straps. With my knees pulled up to my chest, I slowly rocked my body side to side as I tried to create some kinetic energy to keep me warm. I listened on to the _splat, splat_ of the raindrops hitting on the vinyl sheet that now shielded me. I let out a soft sigh, glad that I was no longer stuck out in the cold rain.

It had been a while back when I knew my situation had taken a turn for the worst when I came to the realization that no one pulled a prank on me. Where this a prank, I knew that in good conscious, the would had appeared and ended it after those first fifteen-twenty minutes of walking in the rain.

Yes, ended this awful prank.

Yet...

This was something _new_.

I questioned and pondered the bizarre possible reasons why I was here. The thought of being kidnapped had crossed my mind only to be shot down when I realized a valuable point — why would my so called kidnappers leave me alone in the middle of the forest? It didn't make sense. My family was not particular rich or politically important to even warrant such a crime. I threw out the kidnapping theory out the window. Then there was the fact that modernization had _almost_ reached the farthest corners of the world, so it's naturally safe to assume that I should had come across some sort of civilization by now, be it people or structure. Even a national park would had one of those ranger towers! As much as I pondered on the other possibilities, I could not come up with a definite one. It was useless thinking it over.

My situation was far from good.

"Shit," I muttered as a cold shiver ran up my spine and I furiously rubbed my exposed arms for the ninth time. As pleased as I was for finding this tent, it was not doing me much favor when it came to keeping the cold away. Not only did I blame it on the weather, but the wet clothes I still wore. Clearly, it would had been wise to take them off and set them to dry, but I really wasn't in a location where warm and dry clothes were readily available for me.

I then remembered as I made my way to the corner of my newfound shelter, that I felt a bundle of some type of cloth in my path. I hadn't bothered checking it then and just set it aside like the rest of the other objects that seemed to be strewn across the floor. I wasn't sure for how long the tent had been abandoned, but I knew it would be best not to touch anything. Not because I didn't want to disturbed the objects but because I didn't know if they were clean _or_ safe to the touch. Once again, this was a different situation. Without a second thought, I got on my knees and felt my way for the bundle I felt earlier.

I don't know how long it has been, I'm terrible with telling time out of thin air, but it must had been some time since the rain had stopped. In its place had come the flashes of lightning and the ever familiar rolling thunders.

Thankfully I was no longer cold as before thanks to the warm cloak that I wore. Granted, I would had preferred warm dry clothes over a cloak that was three sizes too big on me. With its high collar that I zipped all the way up, it loosely shielded over half of my face from chilly air. Even though the cloth wasn't pressed up against my nose, I could smell a lingering bland scent on it; it reminded me of those soap or cleaning products the hospital would use on their bedding. Industrial. I soon pulled my arms and legs close to my body; the large cloak sufficient enough to drape over my whole body.

Now all I had to do was wait for morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I currently have six chapters ready to go, including the ones I’ve posted already, so expect quick updates. Thanks for reading!


	3. Encounters

**Chapter Three — Encounters**

_Don't let us make imaginary evils, when you know we have so many real ones to encounter._

— Oliver Goldsmith

* * *

I woken up with a start, my heart beat wildly against my chest.

I tried to sit up but stopped by a prickly sensation I felt at the end of my fingertips. I brought up my hands up to my face for a closer look and observed them with weary eyes. There was nothing abnormal looking about them as I gingerly tapped the pads of my fingers against one another. Huh. They felt numb, _strange_. With a hiss through my teeth, I used the heels of my right hand and motioned myself into the opposite direction. Though I managed to sit up, the strange tingle sensation on my fingers remained. Long gone was the darkness that accompanied me during the storm and in its place was nature's light that filtered through the tent. With this new source at hand, I took in the scene that surrounded me. Nothing out of the ordinary — the tent looked as I imagined. Random knickknacks strewn across the floor with the exception of a sack that was sitting by itself; right next to it laid the loose empty one that I threw to the side when I pulled out the cloak. Distracted momentarily by this, I then remembered the reason for my sudden start.

I had fallen asleep.

It was hopeless. I had not planned on sleeping in the first place as I meant to keep watch. The thought of being discovered while I slumbered was enough to motivate me on staying awake — or so I thought. Obviously sleep had overtaken me. Even so, what should had served as restful and refreshing for another day did not delivered. I still felt physically tired and overall uncomfortable. My whole body ached especially my sore feet and on closer inspection I noticed the thin red scrapes that crisscrossed around my ankles. I don't remember feeling anything last night but I suppose that was expected when your feelings and mind where elsewhere. And as much as I expected for the rain from last night to had left me cleansed, I felt uncleaned.

No surprise there, huh?

I flicked my fingers as I tried to cease the tingling sensation that still remained. While I had not drastically been moving my fingers around since I woken up, there was still enough movement to had "awaken" the numbness away from them. Curiously, I started flexing them instead, stretching them back and forth and observing my hands to see if anything was amiss. I wasn't sure whether it was the stretches or what, but after a couple of seconds later, the feeling disappeared.

 _Strange_...

Just as I had awoken with a start, the realization of my situation crashed down on me.

"There's no way I'm staying here, no way that I have gotten lost..." I muttered to myself as I shook my head in disbelief. "I'm going to be okay, I'm going to find people," I repeated to myself like a mantra as I moved towards the entrance.

I cautiously crawled out of the tent, relieved to see the sky was no longer covered with dark looming clouds of yesterday. In its place were large, white puffy ones that dotted an amazingly bright, blue sky. I continuously stared up towards it, my mouth agape at the sight from above. I had seen beautiful blue skies before like this, mostly enhanced and via a photographer's lenses but I had never seen it like _this_ with my very own eyes. Was it the rain that caused it to look so _sharp_ and _bright_ or was it my eyes? I never worn glasses before so my vision wasn't terrible. I don't know what it was that caused my own eyes to take in this different level of view — for a lack of a better description — but whatever it was, the sky looked quite breathtaking.

Still on my hands and knees, I noticed the ground no longer looked sodden but with the occasional pockets of mud that I noticed here and there from where I was. I looked back up again and noticed the sun was not in the middle of the sky. While I could still sense it was morning, I could already feel the slight warmth of the sun rays on my back. This would explain why the ground was not as damp as it should had been after a night's rain — that and because it was summer, so it was to be expected that a cold, dreary after-rain would not be part of the picture.

I moved onto my feet, careful not to accidentally trip into the tent or the cloak — last thing I needed was another bruised or cut. After I undid my cloak, I noticed my not-so-pristine clothes. Just as the bottom of my feet were crusted with dried mud so was my white tank that was beautifully smeared with the same concoction of water and dirt. I knew that while white was the cleanest of colors, it _also_ attracted stains to it. What was expected after traversing through rain and mud? It was apparent to anyone who could see me that I walked through wilderness. "Well, I could pass off as a survivalist ," I muttered to myself sardonically as I threw the cloak back into the tent.

A sudden gust of wind rushed against me, a remnant from last night's storm. Though not as cold as it was last night, it had been enough to had cause a shiver to run up my spine. I shook off the sensation as I stretched out my arms above my head and gave myself a much needed stretch only to had felt a sharp pain on my left side. Slowly, I brought my arms back down. I should had known my muscles would had protested at the simple act of stretching. Due to the fact that I had slept on throughout the remainder of the night on my side, I had obviously overstretched those muscles that were not too keen on being stretched out.

It was then that I felt a twinge in my stomach and a sudden realization fell upon me — I had gone without eating for a whole freaking day! Of all the times that I've attempted to diet — which _some_ would say I didn't need — I had never managed to go this long though I had wished it _back then_ that I could. Oh how the tables had turned against me now, haha! Was it possible to even find * _some_ * kind of food out here in the wilderness? Then there's the matter about water, the one thing I had not seen around here other than the rain. Had not come across a creek or any other form of a collected water source. While searching for the two sources was doable, there was the question of * _what_ * I could eat out here. I haven't been out in the wilderness enough to notice the difference between edible fruits and the poisonous ones. Of course, I had seen small animals around but I had no clue when it came to hunting and frankly, I rather avoid that. The idea itself, just like the act, was too messy for my taste. Then there's the matter of water safety. In this time of age, was it safe enough to drink straight from the natural source? I couldn't risk it, well, not yet. I will have to hold out as long as I could. I heard people could live without food for days, surely by then I should had come across someone.

As much as I would had liked to stay where shelter was readily available, I knew it was best if I started my search for civilization. Before I could walk off though, it would be wise to take whatever I needed with me. Which meant it was required that I forage through someone's belongings and take what I needed... and so I did. I'm not going to lie, I felt a bit apprehensive as I crawled back inside the tent to forage what I could bring with me. Nothing was old _old_ as you would expect when something was abandoned, nothing was covered in dust or random bits of nature scattered amongst the knickknack as you would expect when things were abandoned. That did not stopped me from rummaging what I could, which, unfortunately wasn't much to begin with. The two sacks were the only ones worthy enough to look into and that's saying a lot considering I had pulled out the cloak from one of them. The second sack contained some kind of sharp strange metal utensils with a ring attached to its handle; along with it there was something that looked much like paper but not quite with a strange insignia spread out on one side. Other than these distinguishable objects, there was nothing worthy to take with me other than a small knife. I wasn't sure of the wildlife out here, but I rather have a weapon of some kind than be caught empty handed.

"_ ! — —?!"

I froze, my breath caught in my throat and with a knife in one hand and a sack in another.

As much as I hoped of finding someone and be saved from this terrible experience, this was not exactly the way I wanted to be found. While the energy of the voice was rough and demanding, what I found to be the worst was the way I could not understand what the person had said. They had spoken so quickly, I could not pick out a word at all. My knowledge of foreign language was limited to English and Spanish as I was fluent in those two. While I've seen enough foreign films to _probably_ pick out the origin and differentiate one from the other, such as German or French, I could not do the same here but that was the least of my worries though. The tone of voice from this person alone led me to believe that he — at least I could differentiate if they were male or female — was the owner of the tent or someone who clearly found my presence unwanted. In either case, this was not a good thing for me at all.

Not good at all...

"—? —- — — —!" He shouted.

This was not the way I imagined meeting the person who would lead me back home, someone who sounded unpleasant and intimidating. I dropped the sack but kept the small knife, which I slid into my pocket carefully. I knew this was not the safest place to put it but it would be helpful and easy to access in case something happened.

_Better safe than sorry._

This was simply a big misunderstanding — he must had thought I was a thief rummaging through his belongings in search of something expensive. This was quite understandable actually since I would had _also_ been pissed to see someone touching my belongings. Yes, I was going to take a few things but with a good reason! Plus, there wasn't anything really of value here had I wanted to steal something. All I would had to do was explain my situation. So I slowly and cautiously stepped out of the tent as I raised my hands before me, a sign that I hoped he would understand that I was not dangerous and much less a thief...

I expected to see someone dressed in their hiking gear, even sporty-looking — nothing fanciful or strange but what I saw before me was something different. _Very different._ The man, the owner of the tent, looked as if he had stepped out of a historical painting. His rather simple looking clothes reminded me of what a peasant would had worn during those days; loose khaki colored pants, an off-white cut off shirt and dark open toed sandals. To complete his look, he wore an tan colored bandana over his slick back dark hair. He was carrying a knapsack over his shoulder, which he lowered to his side once he saw me. A confused look crossed his dark, sharp features.

For a split second, I was relieved by his expression — we both were hella confused with one another.

"Um," I started with a nervous smile, "sorry for using your tent. I been lost in these woods since yesterday and with the storm, I needed shelter and yours had been the only thing I've seen around here." I did not want to completely reveal everything to him but enough to explain my situation here. While I had no idea what language he had spoken, I hope he still understood my English.

"—-," he said something quietly, confused etched over his face as he looked me over.

 _Okay_...

I had no idea what he said but by the looks of it, I was dealing with a person who did not spoke a speck of English if that look on his face was any indication. How could he not know a single word? A simple " _sorry no English_ " would had been sufficient enough for me as that would had given me a a reason on the _why_ he wouldn't speak.

I slowly shook my head in response to whatever it was he had said. "Sorry, but um, I don't understand what you're saying..." I stopped when I noticed he was being overtly attentive. _Could it be...?_ "Do. You. Speak. English?"

"— — —" the man sniggered and just as quick stopped as he peered at me, his eyebrows furrowing along the way.

 _That_... didn't sit well with me. How the hell was I supposed to explain myself to someone who had no clue what I was saying? I involuntarily winced at this fact. "I-I can't understand what you're saying..."

The man dropped his knapsack by his feet, the clinking of metal resonating from within.

"—- —- —?" He looked around, straightening his posture as he did before he returned his gaze upon me. "—-?"

I stared at him, befuddled by the way he continued to speak as if I understood what he was saying. Surely he was not an idiot...? As I was about to open my mouth to speak, I noticed he raised his index finger and pointed at me.

"—-?" It sounded like he repeated the same statement — or was it a question?. Unlike the first time, he was purposely slower, voicing each sound he spoke. Was he trying to communicate with me? He then recreated the same action with his index finger.

This felt a lot like that game of Charades. That was the one word that popped into my head as he repeated the action for the second time. Even so, I was never good at playing it but this appeared to be easy to decipher. The finger he held up at the beginning represented number one and when he pointed at me, it meant – well, _me_.

Did he asked if I was alone? If that was the case, why?

"—, — —..." he chuckled underneath his breath as he scratched the back of his head.

While I was confused as ever, I low key did not like whatever it was he said. Not only did I had the luck of coming across someone who couldn't understand me but there was that _high_ possibility he was not sane of mind either. If it was one or the other, my situation would not be as uncomfortable as it was now. Yet here I was with a person who continued to speak knowing the other person — me — could not understand what they were saying. That chuckle at the end of whatever it was he said did not sit well with me.

A sudden gust of wind enveloped us, strong enough to cause the man to stop and peer up towards the bright sky. He narrowed his eyes and looked back down at me.

_Okay, it was time for me to go._

As I took a side step, the man reached out for me and I instantly backed into the tent. Just as quick, his arm jerked away and a startled look crossed his face. Quickly, he rubbed his upper arms before he pointed a finger towards the sky before the repeated the same action.

' _It's cold_ ' was what I deciphered.

He raised his hands before him, the universal signal I had used myself as he made his way to the entrance of the tent. By this time, I had stepped away from it and him, as a precautionary measure and by the looks of it, it appeared to me he didn't meant any harm. No sooner did I finish that thought that he pulled out the same cloak I had thrown inside. While no longer neatly folded, I noticed peculiar red and white-rimmed clouds that decorated the black material. It was the same exact cloak I had used last night and the very same one he offered to me.

"—, —," he rubbed his arm with his free hand as he showed me why I should take it. Today's weather was far better than yesterday as there was no sight of rain, but even so, it was a bit chilly due to the occasional gust of winds that seemed to come out of nowhere. He offered the cloak, his arm stretched out to me with a nod.

There was no real harm done if he was offering, was there? I had originally even planned on taking it with me. Still, somewhere deep in my conscious, it told me it wasn't right — that I shouldn't take the offered cloak. Yet, I quenched that thought and took the cloak and threw it on me. It was apparent the cloak was made for a tall person as the bottom hem almost brushed the ground and other than it hanging loosely over my body by how large it was, it was still comfortable enough to wear. Unlike last time where I zipped it all the way up, I only zipped it up to my chest before I gave the man a curt nod.

"Well," I slowly started, "I thank you for the cloak but I must get going." It was bizarre to think that all this time I had searched for someone to lead me back to civilization only to now willingly choose to not follow someone. The man said nothing, so I gave him another curt nod before I stepped to the side and before I could take another step, he blocked my way. I quickly looked up to him quizzically, "I rea—"

"— — — — —- — —," he voiced with a look that troubled me. He quickly reached out for me and missed when I responded just as quick by taking a step back. "— —- — —-," he growled.

There was no need for me to understand what was said for the tone of his voice and the ugly expression he held was all I needed to know that I was in deep trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last half of the chapter is no mistype. Considering she has no knowledge of the language, my dilemma was ‘how can I portray said language without it actually being a language?’ How about it almost being total blank? If you listen to a foreign tongue, you can hear the sounds but are clueless with what's being said. How would you describe those sounds? Probably only picking up the vowels of the language, huh? The whole a, e, i, o u but unable to still comprehend what’s being said. So for now, this will be my way in showing what she’s “listening” into whenever someone from the world speaks! In due time, she’ll eventually “learn” the language though!
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	4. Chased

**Chapter 4— Chased**

_It made our hair stand up in panic fear._

-Sophocles

* * *

Of the many scenarios that I replayed through my head on my quest to survive, _this_ had been the last thing I expected to ever encounter.

In fact — it had never occurred to me that I could possibly be _another_ victim to my tragic experience of being lost in the wilderness. I considered the possibility of coming across a wild beast or getting hurt by my own fault, but never by the hand of another person. There was no point in pondering on the possible reasons on _why_ I would even fall victim to another person, there were far too many scenarios.

Plus, there was that itty bitty fact that I needed to concentrate on the presence.

Such as the possibility of bodily harm from the man before me.

' _I need to control my nerves_ ', I thought to myself as I slowly inhaled and exhaled through my nose. I had to do something and quick, time would not be on my side if I just stood here. I scanned my surrounding for an escape route, considering this was a forest, there were plenty of those around. It was a matter of pushing my body as far as I could to lose myself amongst the trees; I was in no way in tip-top-shape but I was not slow either or so I would like to think so. Without a second glance at the man, I placed all my energies on my legs and sprang to my right in the hope he would not be quick enough to catch me.

Boy, was I terribly wrong.

It could not had been more than a second when I sprang for freedom before I felt the man roughly grasped my upper arm and jerked me back. The sudden force entangled my feet and without warning, I fell hard onto the ground in a half hazard seated position. With no time to dwell on the pain and much less the shock of the action itself, the man grabbed the cloak from my shoulders and dragged me on the ground.

As I struggled and kicked, I tried my best to my abilities to pull myself away from the man's hold on me and it was then that I remembered the knife. Easier said than done, it had taken my hand to twist, turn and tug before I was able to take hold of the knife's handle. Once firmly held, I pulled and aimed blindly where I felt one of the hands grasping the cloak. With a loud unintelligible cry coming from him, he dropped me and I took this chance like a madwoman to get as far away as I could on all fours.

"===========" he stopped mid-sentence once he caught sight of the knife I held as I cautiously moved onto my feel. I noticed him briefly holding onto his bloodied hand before he dropped his arms beside himself. "=========" he hissed.

I aimed the knife at him, holding it firmly between my hands as I stepped back. It was here that I sensed a dull pain that emanated from both my lower back and somewhere deep in my stomach.

Though nervous, I was not about to let my emotions get in the way from my salvation. I had to put my senses into action and my brain to work out a strategy to escape. Having my judgement clouded with fear would not be helpful at all.

That in itself was not an easy thing to do...

"=========" he took a step towards me.

Despite the fact that everything pointed to bodily harm, I couldn't help but think if I was _really_ capable to go through and defend myself. It was as if my subconscious answered when my hands visibly trembled.

The man let out a sharp laugh before he took another step forward, "============"

I clenched my jaw when I took a step back, the knife firmly held between my hands. "Stay the fuck away from me!" I screamed with all that I could muster from within. With an unsavory smirk voicing words I could not comprehend, he lunged at me.

With my body frozen in the spot, I was unable to move from what was coming my way. Whether it was honest to goodness fear itself or something I could not comprehend, but it wasn't until his heavy body crashed hard against my own that time resumed. I had fallen hard on my back as he fell heavily on me, the air literally knocked out of my lungs as the back of my head smashed hard against the ground. Everything had happened so quick, I barely had time to muster a cry from the shock of it all.

It had happened so suddenly... so unexpected... No person was crazy enough to go after someone when the other had a weapon, I slowly realized as I came out of my daze. Just as my thoughts were slowly becoming clearer, so was the pain. I moaned as the back of my head throbbed painfully and as a result, I could feel my eyes start to swell which I instinctively closed. Another painful pressure rested upon my chest as it was becoming harder to breathe. It was here when I realized the man was no longer on me when I gingerly crossed my arms in front of me, resting my hands on my shoulders as I tried to control my breathing. Slowly breathing in and out as I tried to control the trembles that wanted to overtake me. Just as time had paused and restarted, I had not become aware of when he rolled off from me, but surely it happened when I was still in shock. With all the strength I could muster, I carefully turned onto my side and slowly albeit painfully crawled away from where I was brought down. On more than one occasion, I felt vertigo overcome me and I had to stop for a second to close my eyes and let the feeling pass before I continued.

Once I felt the distance was safe enough, I leaned against a tree and took my chance to observe the direction I had come from. It had not taken me long to find his prone body not too far off from where I crawled away. The knife that I once shakily held was embedded into his side. While not as close, I still managed to see that the blade was not visible from where I stood. What could be seen was the dark crimson stain that looked to encircled the handle. I had no recollection of thrusting the knife into him, much less have the strength to do so at the time. _It must had happened when he crashed onto me_. I thought I seen him stirred so I quickly rubbed my eyes with the heels of my palms and peered at his body again. Again, he moved but unlike the first time, I witnessed as he pulled out the knife with a loud grunt. He flung it in my direction, though this was by chance as he had not bothered to look elsewhere other than on himself. Without giving it a second thought, I sneaked towards it and picked it off from the ground before I scurried back behind the tree.

His abnormally bright red blood covered the blade and to an extent up to the handle which smeared my palms, I noticed. My eyebrows furrowed. I was no doctor but I knew the wound must had been deep when you considered the length of the blade. Best case scenario, he would need some stitch— His scream startled me out of my thoughts, almost dropping the knife when I turned to his direction.

Last I saw him, he was on the ground. Now my eyes widen in shock when I noticed he slowly moved on his feet towards my direction, his bloody hand covering his side as he gave me the foulest glare I had ever seen on someone.

"=======" he growled, his dark eyes piercing daggers at me.

Not waiting another second, I turned and ran as fast as I could physically go. I stumbled at first, my body seemed not wanting to be pushed but I pressed myself as hard as I could. I had to get as far away as possible. By doing so, and likely as a retaliation, my body seemed to duplicate the pain I already felt all over. I could feel my head throbbed as I ran around the trees. My back ached terribly as I pushed my feet hard against the earth, and my fingers had chosen at this time to be prickled by invisible needles. There was no chancing it, I was not going to stop to catch a much needed breath — not when I could still hear him yelling after me. I considered myself not physically fit, but was moderate at best so I should had set some distance between the two of us already. So how the hell was it possible that he could still be chasing me with a wound on his side?!

With my throat parched and lips dried, my legs screamed for me to stop.

_Shit... Shit... Shit..._

I zigzagged my way around the trees as I pushed off from the tree's trunks as a boost to continue forth. After I rounded a particular large tree, I slowed down considerably when I came upon the one thing I had looked forward to seeing. Up ahead was a clearing that marked a well-used dirt road. As cheesy as it was, I let out a nervous laughter as my heard elated to see such a sight. I had never understood that meaning before but I understood it now as my heart beat hard against my rib cage. This brief stop had made my feet heavy with weariness, so I forced them to take a step as I kept my sight on the road ahead. I knew dirt roads always led to some sort of civilization though at this point I could care less where it lead.

I leaned against my knees as I stood in the middle of the open dirt road. Stopping earlier had made me lose momentum as my body finally caught up to me when I approached the road in such a ridiculous pace. My chest felt tight and sore and I was not sure whether it was due to my breathing or the injury itself. I pulled myself straight up which had relieved some of my pain by a very small percentage. It was then that I realized something. With all the focus on myself, I had not taken notice of the silence. Momentarily, I had forgotten about the man. I whipped my head and faced the trees that I stumbled out from. There was no sight or sound of him. There was that possibility though that he was in hiding. Quickly, more like how fast I could push myself, I crossed to the other side of the road before I found and hid behind a rather large tree with tall shrubs, a natural and temporary hideaway.

I slid against a rather bumpy tree trunk as I dropped the knife that I surprisingly had held onto with my dear life. I felt suffocated and too warm as I dropped my chin against my chest, only to then see I still wore the goddamned cloak. _Gee, Ari, what'd ya expect..._ With a sigh, I took hold of the zipper but stopped and raised my head.

My fingers were still tingling.

It was the same sensation I had felt when I woken up earlier today, which I later blamed on the fact that I had slept on my arms. I brought up my hands to my eye level and once again flexed my fingers. As I did, I realized that I had not harmed them other than a cut prior to the stabbing earlier. Other than my fingers, there was still something that wasn't right.

I was in the middle of a forest. Should I not had heard some wild animals such as birds chirping amongst the tree branches. Where were the squirrels that ran around the forest grounds, like the ones I seen the day before? As much as I hated to admit the thought of the vile man chasing after me, did I really lose him? For crying out loud, he was still after me with that bloody wound on his side earlier. Of course I'd zigzagged my way around the trees, not really paving a straight path to anywhere other than getting away from _him_.

There was something incredibly unnerving how I easily lost him and the silence that now surrounded me.

Unless I...

I gingerly placed my fingers against the entrance of both my ear canals and felt dryness. I looked down at my fingers again and there was no sight of blood on my fingertips with the exception of the dry flecks of blood that came from the knife. This was a good thing, you see. Had I banged my head hard enough, it would had surely had caused some kind of internal injury that could had potentially left me deaf. Being aware that the silence was not brought on by me but my surrounding was not much comfort.

_This silence..._

Should a forest really be _this_ silent?

As if the universe responded to my question, I heard something. A noise that I would not had picked up had the forest been alive with its natural ambient noise. I picked up the knife and forced myself to stand. My legs were incredibly sore but there was no way I would be caught sitting down. As I leaned against the tree's trunk, I scanned my surrounding for the source of the noise. No sight of the man or an animal, but I heard it again. Something was on the move, somewhere. That was my cue to start moving. I steadied my footing seeing as my legs still felt weak with weariness. I cannot remember a time in my life where I had to _literally_ force myself to move as my life literally depended on it.

It was by the time I pushed myself off from the seventh tree that I noticed something move out of the corner of my right eye. Despite not seeing what it was exactly, I knew it was something dark in color. A shadow of some kind. Perhaps a bird flying off from a nearby tree? That would account for the quick shadow disappearing when I turned to look at the direction I saw it coming from.

"That couldn't possibly be it..." I muttered to myself as I scanned for the shadow again.

Bird or not, I was not going to stick around and wait to see to confirm it. Once again, I pulled the strength from god-knows-where and darted towards an unknown destination. I wasn't going deeper into the forest but tried my best to align myself in the direction where I last seen the road. I concluded where ever the road leaded, it would come to an end and I would be able to know without having to actually walk on the road. It was then that I heard a loud crashing sound coming from behind me, along with its strange noise. For the briefest moment, I didn't dare to look behind as I pushed myself forward. But curiosity pulled a card on me and I glanced over my shoulder.

A short distance behind me was the subject of the strange noise _and_ what I had seen earlier. Even as I saw it, I could not comprehend what it really was — I never had seen anything like it! Dark and flickering between the colors of white and black, four snake-like _things_ slithered after me. Caught by the sight of these strange monstrosities , I failed to noticed an exposed tree root which my toes caught themselves in.

Last thing I saw was the hard ground that came for me at lightening speed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!


	5. Female

**Chapter 5 — Female**

_The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.  
_\- Oscar Wilde

* * *

  
It had been a day ago when the dark haired young man felt something in the air, a disturbance of sorts to be honest. Which in itself was a peculiar thing but he brushed it off to the weather – there had been a lot of storms lately for that time of the year. He found it strange how the weather could be so variable even when its patterns could be predicted for the last couple of decades... or so he had read in the almanac.

Nonetheless, the storms had been bothersome and it certainly looked like rain was coming for the sixth time. This summer will certainly be one to remember.

He couldn't had been more than a mile away from the village when he felt the signal in the east side of the forest; were it not that a second road was located in that side that merged with the one that lead to the village, he would not had bothered to check it out. But as was his duty for today, he had to investigate.

Running across the forest floor, he zeroed in on the direction the signal was coming from and while he couldn't recognized to whom it belonged to, he knew by the strength alone that it belonged to a shinobi and not that of a civilian. Even so, the young man could tell through the subtle vibration that was resonating from the direction that a confrontation was a foot. What slightly perplexed the young man was that he couldn't sensed the second person in the fight.

While not out of the norm, it was something that pushed him forward and without a second thought, he leapt into one of the nearby trees.

* * *

As he neared this second road, the source of the signal quickly vanished.

Well, not quite.

It was actually moving away from where he last sensed it.

'Running away,' he thought as he stopped atop a broad tree branch. 'They knew I was com-' His thoughts instantly came to an abrupt halt when he noticed the one on the road.

There, in the middle, stood a female Akatsuki member.

'This must be the second person the first was confronting.' He thought to himself as he knelt down on the branch so as to better hide himself. 'If so, why would the first disappear?'

From the Intel gathered on this criminal organization, the characteristic of the female did not match that with the sole known female of the group. 'She must be a new recruit,' he thought to himself as he took note of her to report. The female appeared to be in her late teens; if the cloak was any indication, it appeared to him she was of the small and delicate physique – which was not unheard of when it came to some kunoichi. Her dark shoulder length hair was clearly disheveled while her dark colored eyes quickly turned to his direction. Quickly, the young man hid himself behind the tree's trunk. Despite her not looking physically dangerous, he knew not to underestimate the female considering the Akatsuki comprised of mostly S-rank missing-nin's.

'Base on the fact that she was not exuding any form of chakra signal she must have way above excellent chakra control,' he thoughts to himself as he pulled out his special custom scroll. He glanced around the trunk in time to see her running into the forest. 'As the saying goes, surely there's more to her than meets the eye.' He laid the scroll out in front of him and took hold of his ink brush. Quickly, he formed his fingers into a seal and after uttering his familiar words and with a couple of swift flicks of his wrist, he watched the five drawn snakes jump out of his scroll and down to the forest floor as alive as those they mimicked.

* * *

Well, he didn't know what to think.

He expected for a fight – had been looking forward to one, actually – but this was different. He already sent word for the others through the use of his birds not so long ago as he waited patiently by the bound unconscious female.

As far as he knew the female should had been dead but her strong pulse said otherwise. Rendering someone unconscious – be it through self-harm as was the case – should ceased their ninjutsu hold and in turn should had left them vulnerable for attacks, which should had been the opposite case for the female. Rendered unconscious, her chakra signature should be exposed considering she couldn't be holding it back.

Yet, there was none.

A sudden gust of wind shook the tree's leaves above him, causing a couple to loosen their hold on their branch and slowly drift onto the unconscious female.

The skies were darkening with rain again.

* * *

It was another bad storm if the heavy rain and wind was any indication.

By the time the first drops of rain appeared, the team's leader had already created a temporary shelter to both house themselves and keep the female prisoner out of the elements.

"It's certainly a bad one – you should see how it is out there," his female teammate commented as she walked into the small room where they kept the female. As was the suggestion of their team leader, they decided to keep her separate from themselves. Even while unconscious, they had no idea what else the female was capable of doing considering what happened not so long ago.

"Once it stops, we'll send word for the others to meet up with us," the leader stated as he walked towards the door. "Sakura, Sai," he turned to look both at the dark haired young man and the pink haired kunoichi. "In the meantime, I'll put a temporary seal on the door to keep her within. Even while bound, we can't be too careful even in the state that she's in." He then pointedly looked to Sakura, "I suggest you don't overextend yourself for the next hour no matter the situation– after your attempt at a transfusion, we don't want another repeat of what happened earlier."

Sakura nodded, "right."

With that – team leader, Sakura and Sai stepped out of the room before he placed the aforementioned seal on the door, which embedded itself into the wooden texture.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I’ll be adding different perspectives throughout the story to better show you what’s happening and their reactions towards this clueless girl. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	6. Glances

**Chapter 6 — Glances**

_Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure._   
_The fearful are caught as often as the bold._

\- Helen Keller

* * *

My senses tingled as they woke me up from a surprisingly deep slumber as I slowly sensed the hard pressures of the ground beneath me, particularly on my right hip as I laid on my side. I attempted to open my eyes but my eyelids felt heavy, so I decided to keep them closed. I moved my head and almost made myself comfortable from where I laid only to gasp when I felt how stiff my neck muscles were. I let out a groan as I allowed the pain to subside. Was it minutes or were it hours that I had slumbered away in the same position to awaken to strained neck muscles? Whatever the case, the awkward position had definitely kinked up my neck. Finally, I achieved opening my eyes and when I did, I expected to see familiar daylight. Instead of coming upon the white walls of my room and the soft glow of sunlight filtering through my curtains, I saw nothing.

Quite literally as everything was pitched black.

I furrowed my brows — how could that be? It was then when my ears picked up on the sound of water dripping somewhere around me. I whipped my head around and a bit too soon when I felt those sore muscles acting up once again. I held my breath as I waited for a couple of seconds to pass, my ears finally distinguishing the constant water drops was the sound of rain.

Rain?

"Wha–" I abruptly stopped. My throat was parched — I could not say a thing without feeling a strange, prickly sensation in my throat. I tried to moisten my lips but that was a useless act. I tried to swallow what I could and what I managed had been painful. With a sudden realization, I lifted my head and ignored the cries from my pained muscles.

 _I was running… a man was after me… I-I… no…_ He was no longer chasing after me. It was someone else, no, _something_ else. _Snakes… snakes… I tripped_ and then…. I woke up in this dark place.

A terrible pain shot through the side of my forehead and instinctively I raised my hand only to abruptly stop halfway. While I could not see anything in the darkness, I could _feel_ something had bound my wrists together. Curiously enough, it should had been something I should had felt when I came to my senses but it went without notice. I was still on my side, partially laid on top of my right arm. I could still freely move about my fingers but it was pointless at this moment. The pain on my forehead did not subside like that of my neck muscles. I could only assume it was the place I, well, literally knocked myself out. As much as I found that situation comedic to warrant a laugh, I unwillingly let out a whimper instead.

I could feel my lips tremble as my breath became shallow. The last thing I had wanted to happen actually happened. I been caught, tied and as much as I wanted to make a sarcastic comment about it — I was thankfully not gagged. It didn't matter, I told myself as I felt my stomach tie itself into a cold knot. The pain on my forehead had become the least of my worries.

I rolled onto my back, my eyes fixated to the dark ceiling or at least what I assumed to be the ceiling. By changing positions, I partially relieved the pressure on my right arm but my relief was short lived when I was soon overtaken by a new strange sensation on my chest. I could not figure whether it was the soreness that lingered after being tackled or something else entirely different. Obviously, it had to be the first option since my chest had not hurt while I was on my side. While my bound wrists rested on my chest, the strange pressure persisted so I awkwardly rested them on my stomach instead. This, turned out to be a bad move. The moment I had placed them on my stomach, a sharp pain rushed up my nerves as if a dozen needles pierced my flesh. Out of instinct, I quickly removed my bound writsts.

_Wha-what the hell...?!_

I couldn't recall being hit on my stomach and much less stabbed but the effect of bodily harm was there. With nothing at my disposal to view this unexplainable injury, all I could do was rely on my senses, and they informed me I had sustained a new injury while I was unconscious. Where and the How would have to wait as there were more important things at hand — no pun intended.

As I laid there quietly with my wrists resting on my lower abdomen, I listened on to the steady rain. The splitter-splatter of hard raindrops hitting against the roof surrounded me and I was momentarily absorbed by the rhythmic sound it produced. I was startled out of my reverie when a thunderous sound shook around me and no sooner did lighting followed. The brief brightness caused by the flash was enough to take in what surrounded me… which wasn't much.

With the little that I saw, I was clearly in a room — no surprise there, really. The room only had a small open window way up high by the ceiling where the flash of lighting streamed in. Whether it was a room or a shed, I couldn't immediately tell. The briefest of light only offered so much within those milliseconds. I rolled myself to my left and after curling my hand into a fist, I knocked on the floor. Wooden planks. Everything seemed to be made of wood here with the exception of the window. How this knowledge could help, I had no clue. Had I not been tied up on the floor, it would had been impossible to escape through that tiny window and much less reach it — it was far too high.

As my legs were -thankfully- left untied, I used them to slide myself into one of the four walls and let me tell you that was no easy task. Other than hitting the top of my head against one of these walls, my legs were incredibly sore. Still on my back, I tried to figure a way to get myself upright. The only thing that came to mind was doing a sit-up, which should be an easy thing to do, right? Yet my throat desired water and my stomach was in pain. Food was out of the question though very necessary in my case as it equaled energy and _that_ was the one thing I lacked in. Instinctively I knew I wouldn't have the same energy to run away as I did earlier today – or was it yesterday? Why bother? Using all my strength, I pushed myself into a sitting position.

I was out of breath by the time I leaned against the wall. While I acknowledged the lack of energy, it unnerved me tremendously how serious I was out of it. If it had taken a lot from me to sit myself upright against a wall, could you imagine how much I would need to run away from this? _To fight off_ \- I let out a trembling sigh. Sure, everything was stacked against me but _no_ , there was still something I could do. What? I had no idea but there was something. There had to be something... I had to get myself to stand instead of sitting here for the bastard to come in and... I felt an all-too familiar sensation building in my chest and in my throat as I sensed my eyes watering at the thought of... "No," I croaked, pushing that dreadful image away.

Unknowingly, I must had bitten the inside of my lip when I tasted something metallic against my tongue.

"I need… something to drink," I uttered in-between pants as I stood awkwardly against the wall. Awkwardly in the sense my legs were feeling ridiculously weak with the possibility of them giving out under my weight. Another flash of lighting momentarily flooded the room and I saw the outline of a door across from where I stood. Still wearing the dreadful cloak, I tentatively took a step forward by placing my weight on my right foot. While not weak, my leg was unsteady and that was not necessarily a good thing. It didn't matter, there was nothing I could really do. I wanted to get to that door. Thankfully the room was empty, so I wouldn't be bumping or tripping in the darkness. The distance from the door to where I stood was not that far – what could even happen between there and here?

 _Five… six… sev—_ my legs suddenly gave out without warning and I crashed down onto my knees before I toppled over onto my back. The sequence of falling on my knees was as painful as hitting the back of my head. The pain on my forehead that I had managed to ignore suddenly flared up and I couldn't help but cry out in pain. After I let out a string of obscenities as I awkwardly felt around my forehead with my bound wrists, I suddenly stopped mid-touch when I heard something other than rain.

 _Sounds_.

I'm not sure how I managed to do it, but unlike the first time where it had taken me longer than I wanted, I managed to sit-up in such a short amount of time. My preference would have been to crawl away and hide instead of sitting in the middle of the room as I was now. There was only so much I could do with my bound wrists, plus, the darkness didn't help my case either.

Blindly, I stared ahead where I last saw the door.

 _Click_.

There was nothing I could do, nothing physically possible as I sat there exposed to whatever was coming. If there was anything that I was able to control it would had to be my feelings and if this predator preyed on fear, well, _that_ I would not give.

Oh, so easier said than done! My stomach somehow tied itself into tinier knots, my hands clammy as my fear of the unknown was rearing its ugly head — even my breath I had to control if I didn't want to suffer a blown-out panic attack. As I awkwardly sat in a position that was not comfortable, I tried to move myself around only to end up sitting on top of my legs — thankfully, I did not toppled this time around.

"=======—"

I expected to hear a familiar language, someone who I could at least speak and communicate with — someone who would understand me. The only relief, if you could call it that, was how this voice was _way_ different from the person I had encountered. The voice was not intimidating, in fact, it was soft but I soon pegged that to the fact that he was whispering in the dark. With the door opened as I could hear the soft rain from outside, I expected to see my captor but all I could managed to see was the dark outline of his figure.

"=============="

"Where am I?" I demanded firmly as I could even as my voice was evidently hoarse.

The footsteps that started suddenly stopped, "==========="

I couldn't help but let out an audible sigh. That language again. It was definitely of Asian origin but I couldn't differentiate it. "I don't understand what you're saying, why am I even here?" It was very unlikely I was kidnapped and taken to a different country — I was nowhere _near_ that important to warrant such action.

"============," this soft-spoken individual continued in a nonchalant manner as if nothing was out of the norm with our communication.

"Why the _hell_ do you keep speaking to me as if I know the _damn_ language?!" I screamed, a scream that pierced my parched throat as I cried out again. I swallowed whatever saliva I had to get some relief but it was useless – I had gone without water for nearly three days. A sudden onset of vertigo overcame me. _Ugh…_..

What happened next could only be described as a blur – well, not technically considering there was no light source to see it happen but the statement still stands. One second I was surrounded by darkness with this unidentifiable person and the next a flash of light blinded me – so bright it was I had to bring up my curled fists to shield my eyes from the sudden assault. With my eyes now firmly closed, I heard someone else speak as they entered the room. This was completely different from the first one but it still belonged to that of a male; his voice was not deep but there was definitely a tone of superiority to it.

I slowly opened my eyes, letting themselves adjust to the room's new light. Instinctively, I searched for the source of it and found it belonged to an oil lamp that hung on a hook close to the door. Was that the thing that flashed so brightly? I could have sworn it had come from a flash grenade, not that I would know the experience.

With a second person now present, the two of them spoke amongst themselves and with more than just curiosity motivating me, I whipped my head to see them. Just as before with the man in the forest, I could not help but stare at what I saw. One - I was far off from being in an Asian country because neither of the two looked remotely Asian despite the language. Two - there was so much to take in…

The second voice, the one who entered minutes ago, belonged to the most normal-looking one out of the two. Well, as close to normal as possible. He wore what appeared to be a paramilitary uniform — dark colors and wearing a dark olive-green vest with plenty of front pockets. Though clothes were normal looking, it was his headgear that stood out. Gray in color, it framed his face. Right over his forehead stood out a type of metal plate with a strange symbol engraved on it. Other than that headgear, he looked normal – granted, I could not see much of his face.

Unlike this second person, the first one – the one who tried to speak with me earlier was definitely _different_. He could not be any older than I was, and even under the glow of the oil lamp, I could tell he was either very light skinned or pale with dark short hair. Not only was it easy to see that he was slender in physique – thanks to the sight of his midriff – but his clothes were something else. What type of shirt was that anyway? One sleeveless while the other was not and those gloves... I would understand if they were fingerless but this was just... was it a costume? Would make sense with the first person dressed in the getup he was in. Just like the newcomer, he also wore a type of material over his forehead, metal plate and all.

I must have gawked at him longer than normal as he turned to look at me, which was enough of an action for the two of them to stop speaking. I furrowed my eyebrows – I was really not the intimidating type – and turned away from his blank stare. That action alone was clearly not a deterrent as I heard a pair of footsteps approached me; no need to look up to see who it was as his pants alone gave the newcomer away. Standing before me but still far out from my reach, I had a feeling he wanted me to look up – not bothering to do so, I fixed my stare past his legs.

I heard him say something and I couldn't help but rolled my eyes; he spoke once more, longer than the first time but unlike it there was a question to his tone. The other one responded and his voice had not changed much from when we were in the dark. I looked at him and caught him staring, I shot him a frown and looked up towards the newcomer. If there was something movies had taught me, it was this – never show your fear outright despite trembling from within.

"Why do you even bother? Surely you know by now that we can't even understand one another – not that I would want to considering how everything is going." I said with what I hoped was a steady voice despite my hoarseness. I caught the older one exchanging a glance with the other boy – was he confirming something? I felt that he was…

Despite the lack of knowledge of what was to come, I had to prevent whatever it could be. The how, the what I did not kno– "Water," I finally voiced; killing two birds with one stone, this made perfect sense. "I need water." I declared confidently as I stared up at the man. There was something intimidating by the way he just stood there, observing me as I had done with them. I inwardly sighed – there would be no way to express my need by using my vocals, I had to find some other way. Then it dawned on me... Of course! Since my wrists were bound together, all I needed to do was interlock my fingers together and stick out my thumb, which in turn would form them into a strange looking sippy cup. In a slow gesture, I tipped my thumbs towards my lips – the signal couldn't be any clearer.

The newcomer turned away and said something to the other; I turned and caught sight of the first one pulling something from a pouch that I had not seen before. With a flick from his wrist, he threw a container of some sort towards the newcomer who easily caught it in his hand. He said something as he held out the container towards me. Better yet, it appeared to me he was handing this container to me as if I could just reach out and grasp it. He shook its contents; there was no denying it, there was liquid inside. I looked at it then up at him; he shook the container again. I nodded; I'm assuming he was asking if I wanted it.

Tentatively, I outstretched my hands to receive it as he uncapped the bottle before placing it between my hands. I awkwardly held it, hoping it wouldn't tumble and spill its content, but it was then as I held it inches away from my mouth that my instincts took over and I no longer cared if I spilled any of it on me.

I drank it as if there was no tomorrow.


	7. Pee

**Chapter 7 — Pee**

_Always go to the bathroom when you have a chance._  
-King George V

* * *

**{Sai's Perspective}**

Sai had seen plenty of things both _in_ and outside in Konohagakure. He even learned more about the world through the books he rented from the library prior to being assigned into Team Kakashi and that only continued through his time with his new team. Even the books were incredibly informative, such as telling him about the weather patterns and seasons — which the book in particular had gotten wrong for this season. These last couple of days were filled with rain when it should had been a warm season instead. Still, as much as books were informative to him, there were subjects and matters that confused him. For instance, when it came to friendship and giving people nicknames — the advice he took didn't go too well for him in person. Another confusing matter was the _bonds_ that his teammates Naruto and Sakura had spoken to him about. He couldn't quite grasp what it meant but it was significant enough to cause others into a reaction, for instance Naruto with the traitorous Sasuke Uchiha.

Then there was _this_ situation.

Even he had seen how perplexed Sakura was when she first came upon the female and the shock that resulted after she tried to help her. Had it not been for Team Leader Yamato, this strange situation could had ended in tragedy for Sakura. Still, even with the potential of a loss of life, he had learned something from it.

How was it possible that a live, breathing, _human_ could both exist in plain sight _and_ be a ghost at the same time? While he was displeased that he couldn't had seen her full abilities, he knew that despite her appearing as a defenseless idiot, she could very well be dangerous. A ghost could very well be a perfect soldier or weapon if that were to be her situation. It wasn't unheard of inanimate objects holding in a powerful life force for another's disposal.

Just as he had found her, he was also there when she had awoken up. Granted, this time around, he wasn't alone when she started speaking — if he could call it _speaking_. It was all foreign to him or gibberish but he had quickly concluded it would be of no use to seek out any information from her — whether out here in the wilderness or when taken in. While verbal communication was out of the question, he could tell she was able to communicate in a peculiar way. Where it not that she still possessed her tongue, he would had assumed her to being a mute. Though it was a common protocol to bound their prisoners' hands, she still relied on hand gestures to get across the message she wanted to pass on, for instance her need for water.

' _Such a very basic human need.'_

While very much alive, she was a Ghost to him and another subject he knew _they_ would be interested in.

"Despite the show she's putting on and the bizarre language," Yamato continued as Sai refocused on him again. "Do not let your guard down. Common knowledge state she should not be able to perform anything — but there she is like a puppet, empty from within with no evident life force."

"A puppet or a Ghost," Sai stated as the two glanced towards their strange prisoner. "Would not be farfetched to think she's being manipulated from afar, would it then?"

"We are not in an appropriate location to thoroughly check for marks on her, but if that were to be the case this would be easy to solve once we return to the village. But common knowledge is that every thing that is alive in this world has their own life force that can be sensed." Yamato finished as he turned to leave the room. "Yet we cannot sense her and clearly she's very much alive."

" _Like a Ghost_ ," he thought to himself.

* * *

**{Ariadna's Perspective}**

While there was no way I could pick out the string of words the two had spoken and much less understand what they were saying, it still did not take a genius to figure they were speaking about me. Their glances literally said it all. Amazing how _actions_ could really speak louder than words. Even though I could not understand their _gibberish_ — for a lack of a better word — I sensed they were speaking in sentences rather than in short punctuated words. If you were to speak in a sentence, your words were usually strung together which is how I came upon this conclusion. If there was one thing that kept being repeated, the one things that was easier for me to pick on, it was the boy's name — Sigh.

When I handed back the bottle I drank from, the Paramilitary man called him by the same word and he responded. This interaction and association continued up until Paramilitary man left. So it didn't take a wild guess that was his name: Sigh. Granted, it sounded a lot more like a verb than an actual name and probably even spelled differently. Even so, it was close to impossible to even try to pin the strange sounding name to a country. For all I knew, it could very well be a nickname. I suppose it was a fitting name for a strangely dressed albeit handsome person who so happened to had been assigned the babysitting job — watching over me.

After Paramilitary man had left, I scooted to the nearest corner of the room. By the time I made myself comfortable — a rather hard thing to do —, the light in the room had dimmed considerably but not enough to miss out on Sigh's dark silhouette walking towards the opposite side of the room. After a while of staring into the darkness and avoiding staring at Sigh's direction who was seated at the opposite side from where I was, I somehow had fallen asleep. What stirred me awake was not the sun that streamed through the small window but something else entirely different.

Something more…. _physical_.

My bladder.

It was natural, it was to be expected but how the hell would I had known? Yes, common sense stated that once you drank something in large quantities it _also_ must come out. So how was I supposed to take that into consideration while I was dying of thirst? Who would in their right mind choose to opt out of placating their thirst for the fear of needing to relieve themselves afterwards? This was to be expected and that only left me to deal with the aftermath. Had I still been in the forest and alone, this situation would not been a situation in the first place. Honestly, what was the point of even thinking about this? I had to do something. I was definitely not about to have an accident while under the care of this Sigh person. Who, by the looks of it, looked to be occupied by something on his lap. A book? Tablet? I couldn't tell nor did I care.

_Shit_.

How was I supposed to tell him I needed to use a restroom?

"Shit," I muttered to myself and yet no reaction from him.

Was there even a restroom in this place? If going by the room itself, I had to say this was more like a wooden shack than an actual building with amenities.

I had to do something.

"Sigh," I uttered.

Sigh couldn't really be his name, could it? Though a common word to express an action in the English language, it couldn't possibly be a name. From which country could that had originated from if it were? At best, it could very well be a nickname.

"Hey, Si-" I caught his attention.

I honestly wasn't expecting him to actually react to my calling his name — was actually hoping I'd still have time to come up with something to tell him what I needed. Honestly though, there was _something_ I would have preferred not to resort to doing…. _that_. I mean, if he was a _she_ that would have made a whole world of difference but alas, that was not the case.

Other than the option of soiling myself like a barely-being-toilet-trained-toddler, my last resort was the pee dance. That _one_ dance that could really get your message across and fitting for a four year old child. With that as my only option, I prepared myself to physically stand up from where I sat.

Should've been an easy feat to accomplish, right? I had the wall behind me for support and since my thirst had been quenched, it should be easier to handle myself this time around — how hard could that be? Oh, I don't know. Having Sigh stare as you struggled to get up was not exactly encouraging. Hell, I could feel myself madly blushing at this mere task. Goes without saying I avoided looking at his direction.

_"You need to relieve yourself, don't you?"_

Yet I turned and looked at him, my face still feeling incredibly warm. Instead of seeing his usual expression — or lack thereof — there was a smile on his face. An actual _nice_ smile. Granted, there was nothing out of the norm from the looks of it but he was _still_ smiling. Why the hell was he smiling for?

"What?" I flatly asked as I stood awkwardly against the wall. "Am I amusing you?"

Still holding that smile, I watched him close whatever he had on his lap as he easily stood up from where he sat. Without saying anything else, he turned and walked out of the room.

Feeling a bit off with the thought that Sigh possibly left the room with a smile on his face while I needed a toilet, I readjusted my position until I completely and comfortably leaned against the wall. Then it hit me. What if he went and fetched for the other guy, the Paramilitary man? Hold up — even if they had an idea that I needed to use the bathroom, would it be one of _them_ to watch me over as I do my business? Clearly they believed I was a threat or else I wouldn't have my wrists tied, so how would… it work out…?

_Oh_.

_Hell no!_

Surely they don't believe I would run away? How could I? Even with my wrists untied, I would not even have the same energy as before. While I was moderately content with quenching my thirst, my stomach on the other hand kept reminding me that I needed something to eat. Add on top of that, I didn't feel in 'tip top shape' to sprint off. Where would my energy even come from?

I groaned as I pressed the back of my head against the wall.

As soon as I heard the door click, I quickly pulled myself off the wall and stood firmly as best as I could. I had expected to see Sigh or Paramilitary man but it was someone entirely different and definitely not male.

While I definitely noticed her clothes — what was it with these people and their strange clothes? — it was her hair that caught my attention. I'd seen plenty of people with dyed hair but none of them looked as natural as it did on her and I wasn't speaking about your common hair colors either. Hers happened to be pink. It was not shocking pink but more on the softer side, not quite pastel pink but… _soft_. Yet her hair color meshed well with her emerald colored eyes and near-like porcelain skin. Never in my life had I been this enthralled with someone's appearance.

" _So you'd like to go to the bathroom, hm?_ "

I sensed myself nodding at her question but quickly stopped which in turn caused the girl to arch an eyebrow.

" _Bathroom?"_

It was singular as she slowly pronounced it. I wanted to repeat what I heard but I stopped. What I noticed was the similarity to the word Sigh had used before he disappeared earlier.

" _I was informed of this – your way of not understanding what we're saying. Whether you're truly an Akatsuki or not is yet to be seen, because for all we know you might be playing a role_ ," the girl finished as she crossed her arms over her chest.

I audibly sighed — what was it with these people assuming I understood what they were saying? But that question was soon forgotten when it hit me that was a female, a girl who I could easily _tell_ that I needed to use a toilet. While still embarrassing that I needed to resort to this, I rather have her than Sigh or the Paramilitary man watch me.

Awkwardly, I crossed my legs and placed my bound wrists over myself before I did my little jig. Seriously, if a toddler could pull this off than she should be able to understand what I was doing. As I felt my cheeks start to flush once again, I stopped when I heard her chuckle. I could really feel my face heating up.

Lovely, I amused her.

" _You're going long ways to prove who you're not,"_ the girl said as she dropped her arms to her side. " _We'll see how that last. Follow me so you can do your business,"_ she turned and walked towards the door.

There was something different about her, so unlike from the last two who I had the pleasure of meeting. If I didn't know any better – which I didn't – I would had thought she was being condescending. I perked up when she stopped and looked over her shoulder.

" _What are you standing there for? Follow me_." With a slight movement of her head, I knew she wanted me to follow her.

She was demanding, that tone was certainly unmistakable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So! I have decided to include "their language" in the story so you, the reader, know what's going on while leaving Ariadna clueless. All their language would be italicized just to better differentiate between her and their languages.


	8. Curiouser

**Chapter 8 - Curiouser**

_Where there is mystery, it is generally supposed there must be evil._

― George Gordon Byron

* * *

Sakura Haruno never considered herself as superstitious, as a matter of fact, she considered herself of a rational mind. If there was ever to be a god to her, it would be the one called Science. Unlike her fellow teammate Sai, she never took anything literally. Never relying on old wives tales and only relying on scientific facts; after all, with the latter you could easily disprove or prove an idea. There was — literally — an answer for everything in this world and it was safe to say scientific reasoning never failed her. So once she was summoned alongside Yamato and Naruto to join in on a last minute mission, she thought nothing of it more than just another routine.

 _Now_ , she was dumbfounded.

 _Now_ , she wasn't so sure how to even _comprehend_ what she was seeing.

"It's about to rain; I'll set up camp." Yamato finally said as he broke the circle that surrounded the unconscious girl. "Do what you must, Sakura — but keep her bound."

" _So_ , she isn't alive but not dead either so—," the blonde haired boy next to her spoke as he lazily scratched the back of his head. "Wait, how is that even _possible_ — Sakura?"

Sakura gently shook her head as she knelt down before the unconscious girl. Awed at the fact that a _living, breathing_ human was alive. Yet, apprehensive that a human was alive _without_ the life force that every living thing in this world needed. From the tiniest flea, to the mightiest beast every living thing had their own life force easy to distinguish from that of a plant. Ninja's like herself were trained to seek out markers when it came to dealing with enemies and unless they were highly skilled in their chakra control, they could easily "vanish" into thin air if they wanted to. Even so, that _still_ followed the line of rationality. As two plus two did not equal five, this should not been possible.

"Even as the answer lies at your feet, you could not comprehend the situation a young, uneducated child could easily understand. You really aren't that smart, are you — Naruto?" Sai said matter of factly.

"Hey! What the hell d—-"

"Will you _two_ stop it? I need to concentrate here," was the last thing Sakura said as she moved closer to the strange girl. She really had no idea how to progress other than to follow standard procedures for tending to an injured person, but having her two teammates bickering wasn't helping her at all.

Repositioning the girl's arms so they lay flat against the ground, Sakura rubbed her hands together before moving onto the next step.

* * *

It happened so quickly.

One moment, she hovered her hands above the girl's chest right where her heart was located — the proper protocol when it came to transfusing chakra for the patient's health. If said chakra was not needed or absorbed, it would simply dissipate if her intention was to heal. If the patient did not need to be healed, she would know; it would have felt as if she were passing chakra through a rock, no resistance or the mild sensation of absorption would happen. Common sense but most importantly scientific facts declared that _nothing_ should happen .

Yet what happened next was beyond terrifying.

The moment she began her chakra transfusion was the very moment she realized there was something _incredibly_ wrong and it very well nearly cost her life.

Sakura could only describe the sensation of _something locking_ onto her, rendering her body completely immobile as _something_ , like a sentient being of sorts, grasped onto her chakra, her very own life force, and began draining her through the physical point she had on the girl. Last thing she remembered was the sensation of lightheadedness before a darkness descended on her consciousness. Had it not been that someone intervened at that critical moment, she would have been dead.

 _Dead…_.

"How are you feeling?" Yamato knelt before her, gingerly placing a hand on the crown of Sakura's head. No longer next to the girl, she was seated against a tree's trunk. "I apologize for the roughness, it was the only way I could separate you."

"H-how?" Sakura exhaled, completely ignoring his concern as she tried to calm down her nerves. Last thing she remembered was feeling the overpowering sensation before blacking out only to come to a slow awakening with Yamato kneeling before her with a deep concern etched on his face. It was here when she noticed Sai disappearing into a small room that was adjoined to the shelter Yamato had created.

He quickly glanced where she looked, "it's best to keep her separated for now and considering what happened, we cannot take any chances even when she's unconscious."

"You went completely still, as if you were somewhere else — and if it weren't for you screaming, I hate to think what would have happened to you." Naruto voiced as he joined the two of them. Sakura turned to look up to him, noticing the concern look on his face.

Sakura's brows furrowed in confusion as she turned to face Yamato, "what _is_ she?"

* * *

A loud thunderous crack reverberated through their temporary shelter as Sakura adjusted her rain cloak around her for the third time. Had it been winter or even fall, she would had expected this type of weather and the coldness that came with it, but as it was still the middle of the year, the weather was abnormal. _It's been strange lately_ , she thought to herself as she rubbed her hands together to keep them warm.

Despite it no longer raining as hard as it had half an hour ago, thunder and lightning could still be seen and felt — another anomaly for this time of the year. Long gone was her fear and in its place was her inquisitive scientific curiosity about the strange girl they were holding in their temporary cell.

Not too long ago, Sai and Yamato had stepped away to check on the girl only for Yamato to return with a bizarre discovery. From what she heard, the girl was able to communicate — which in itself shouldn't had been interesting if it weren't for the fact that her way of speaking was bizarre. Even with that as a barrier between them, she was still capable of communicating manually as if she were a mute. Being told about the incident with the water bottle only enforced the idea that she could "speak" if she wanted to.

"It's a perfect weapon if you think about it," Naruto spoke from across the small room they were staying in, next to him sat Yamato. "Portraying herself as a weak, defenseless person, she could trick anyone who attempts to use chakra on her and by doing so, she'll eventually end up killing them."

"From what Sai had witnessed prior to us arriving, she was not exuding any kind of power. As a matter of fact, no signature at all while she was awake either," Sakura added. "You could physically touch her and nothing would happen but do so while unconscious and well…."

"Could very well be a form of a defense mechanism," Yamato interjected, continuing Naruto's previous thought. "Only activated while the person is unconscious, preventing any unwanted probing from the enemy."

"If that were to be the case, that could only mean she's holding something of importance or why else would there be a trap set? _Of course_ , this would explain why it reacts differently." Sakura mused. "Unconsciously, it reacts on its own but while it's awake it remains hidden from within?"

"You went from _she_ to _it_ , so is she human or not?" Naruto pointed out. "I'd say she's human but a stupid one if she knocked herself out by tripping over something. Doubt it was enough to mess up her speech though."

As Sakura was about to respond, they were interrupted by Sai stepping into the room. "What is it?" Yamato asked.

"The girl needs to relieve herself," he said matter-of-factly.

Before Sakura or Naruto had a chance to say anything, Yamato spoke. "Set a perimeter in the designated area, once set, set the trigger in case she tries to escape. Incapacitate not kill." Sai nodded before he disappeared.

Yamato turned to Sakura, "as you're the only female, you'll take her. Keep your distance and do nothing rash, understood?"

For a split second, she was taken aback by the orders but her resolve to know more about this strange girl squished whatever fear was left over.


	9. Names

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any words that are italized means they're being spoken in Japanese.

**Chapter 9 - Names**

_Have regard for your name, since it will remain for you longer than a great store of gold._

\- Ecclesiasticus

**ƸӜ̨Ʒ ƸӜ̨Ʒ**

**ƸӜ̨Ʒ**

* * *

Considering the state of my situation and the way things were, I had expected to be led to an outhouse. But once the pink haired girl started leading me down an unmarked path away from the building, I realized I would be doing my necessities out in the open. As I walked behind her, I noticed that we were going deeper into the forest to the point where I could no longer see the wooden building I was a prisoner in. After walking for a bit, we stopped at what could be considered a section that appeared like any other.

" _Once you're done, return here. I'll only be a couple of feet away,_ " the girl said as she undid the ropes around my wrist before she stepped amongst the trees.

Time no longer had any meaning without an actual thing to measure it against. But one thing for sure, nothing hurried you up more than the thought of something happening to you while in your most vulnerable state. So after I relieved myself —a most satisfying feeling I might add—, I took a few steps opposite from where I last seen the girl disappear.

With no sight of her or any other human for that matter, I took a couple of steps away from where I last saw her. Nothing but trees, shrubs and the vibrant green grass as far as I could see. I looked up through the branches of trees that towered over me and could see the dark gray skies that lingered. While it was no longer raining, there was still a sharp chill in the air as I readjusted the oversized cloak I wore. While it had kept the majority of my body warm, it didn't do much for my feet that were exposed to the elements of this earth.

Just as I was about to take a step forward with the intention of walking past the shrubs that surrounded me, I heard a strange rustling coming from amongst them. Quickly recalling what happened earlier, I took a cautionary step back.

"No, not this again…" I muttered under my breath as I slowly started backing away from the shrubs, my senses once more heightened as I kept a firm sight on the green plant. It was apparent that I wouldn't be able to move forward without the need to walk through them. With the exception of the way I came from, there was no way I was going to risk it by walking through the shrubs. Whether the source were rats, badgers or even a snake nest, I did not want to know and much less confront. Once I was comfortable with the distance I set between myself and it, I quickly turned on my heels and made a dash from where I came from.

I had no clue where I was going but I almost ran into the girl, nearly colliding against her before I managed to catch myself in time.

" _It doesn't take much to scare you into running, does it?_ " She said as she still held the rope that bound my wrist in her dark gloved hands. " _Most curious indeed to see that you couldn't even protect yourself; granted, those where Sai's triggers in case you were to run off – where you trying to?_ "

"I—what?" I voiced a bit too flatly, aware there was no use for me to speak as it would been useless to do so. Even if that were my case, that did not stop them from talking.

I felt her emerald colored eyes on me, scrutinizing me for some unknown reason. " _Why do you continue to speak that way? Surely, you should had at least picked up a couple of words from wherever you came from_ ," she said with a shrug before she turned and started to walk away. " _Follow me._ "

"Might as well be mute," I muttered to myself as I watched the girl walk ahead. There was no need for me to guess that she wanted me to follow her. Though her body language clearly told me she didn't care, it still gave me the impression that I should follow her. That or go back to whatever the hell back there was.

**Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

We walked down a path that I wasn't familiar with but I could sense this was not the path we had previously walked on. Though my surroundings did not differ, I could somehow tell we were walking further from where we originally started from. There was no way for me to physically tell we were walking down a specific path, but I had a feeling we weren't walking back to the shelter. While I was content with the fact that my wrists were no longer bound together, I could not help but wonder where we were really going. Though she walked ahead of me and appeared like she didn't care whether I followed her or not, I had a feeling she was not being purposely irresponsible with my supervision for a lack of a better word. So while I had the option of running off, I did not wan to test out the feeling I had. Though I had no idea who she was or what these people were, I was not keen in finding out. The way they acted and looked was somewhat unsettling to me.

We continued down the same path in silence and though it looked as if everything around me was the same, I noticed a change in the air. It was nothing noticeable but the more I listened on as we walked, the sound grew stronger. It didn't take me long to figure out that the source of the noise was the sound of running water.

" _We'll be reaching a stream where you can wash yourself,_ " the girl said.

I could not understand why these people insisted on speaking to me the way they did as if I was able to understand the words that left their mouths. At most and from my lack of knowledge, I figured the language they spoke was of Asian origin. Whether it was Chinese, Korean, Japanese or any of the other half of dozen ones, it would not matter as the knowledge of the ethnicity it belonged to would be useless. It wouldn't help my cause because I had no knowledge of those languages.

As the sound of the stream became clearer which meant we were almost to the source, I said, "If I were to stop talking, would you in turn stop as well?"

The girl looked over her shoulder, " _you're either dumb and have no knowledge of the common tongue or you're putting up an act of this ignorant girl._ "

I didn't bother to respond – as I previously noted, there was no use in having a one-sided conversation.

After a couple of minutes of silence, we finally reached the stream and let me first say that I had never seen something quite like it before. Well, more like I had never seen one with my own eyes that is.

As I stood near a low-branched tree, I admired the view from where I stood. The sight itself was literally picture perfect like those professional photos seen in a National Geographic magazine. With rocks jutting out from the running water, seeming to appear as stepping stones to cross the expanse of the stream and green foliage surrounding it on both sides, it was as if this part of the world was yet to be touched by human hands. It was quite serene, really.

I then turned and watched as the girl walked towards the stream as she tugged off her black gloves, " _you can stop staring and wash yourself, you know._ " She looked over her shoulders again and with a signal, she indicated I should join her. " _Don't just stand there._ "

Being as it was the only source of water I had seen other than the rain, I knew I had to take advantage of it. Even so, the germaphobic side of me hoped that as clean and clear as the water appeared to be, I hoped it wasn't the same kind I had drank from earlier. Last thing I needed was a bad case of stomach cramps and diarrhea amongst these strangers. So once I acknowledged the girl's attention with a nod of my own, I unzipped the cloak I wore and placed it on a tree's branch near me.

It had been a while since I last gave myself a good look and without a mirror, all I could take in were the clothes I wore. Though not normally self-conscious about my appearance, I could not help but feel that way as I stood there. The white tank I wore was smeared with mud as were my black fleece short shorts. I could see that my right knee was badly scraped, dried blood and dirt still clung onto it while on the same right side, my outer thigh was covered with dried speckled blood. The sight of it did not surprise me considering it was the same side where I had hidden the small knife a day or so ago, the very same one that cut me when I fell hard on the ground. I could not help but wonder how I could have forgotten about it. I could not even recall the pain from it but could still vividly recall how it happened. It was indeed a curious thing, but I suppose a hectic day could do that to someone's memory. With a sigh, I made my way towards the stream.

I caught the girl staring at me as I walked up to her side and while I did not found that particularly strange, I ignored her. Even as I knelt beside her, I could still sense her eyes on me. Alrighty then, feeling a bit apprehensive but again I ignored her. As I reached down to cup a handful of cool water with my hands, I could still feel her staring. I get it. I looked like the very thing the cat dragged in but this was a bit too much if not borderline creepy. Even I had not stared at someone this long when I had a good reason to consider how odd the guys were dressed. But me? Someone who was clearly disheveled and literally had fought to survive was worthy enough to be stared at? With a huff, I looked up to her but she quickly glanced away.

" _Huh, you weren't kidding,_ " she muttered under breath.

I splashed the cold water over my face, cupping my hands over my nose and mouth as I took in the feeling of the cool element on my suddenly warm skin. There was nothing much to do but ignore whatever it was she was saying but I kept my ears open just in case...

" _Would it be too much to ask what your name is_?"

I splashed the water over my arms, rubbing them hard to get the grime off of me.

" _Idiot_."

I looked up, quirked an eyebrow and did not bothered to hide my annoyed expression. "Has anyone told you staring is really rude?" I readied myself to wash my other arm when I heard her say the same word. "Are you trying to say bucket or something?"

The girl scoffed under her breath, " _you really have no idea what I'm saying then, do you idiot_?"

This was becoming a one-sided conversation on her part, so why not join in?

I pointed to her, "bahhhkaaattt, whatever the hell that means. You're stupid for talking to me as if I knew what you were even saying." The girl stared at my finger and I watched as her eyebrows furrowed before she looked at me.

" _That was a pretty lame way of calling me an idiot_ ," at best she looked flustered or surprised, couldn't tell nor did I care as I returned back to the task at hand.

So for the next couple of minutes or what I can assume as a couple as there was no way of telling time, I concentrated on cleaning myself as much as possible. While I would had much preferred a warm shower and clean clothes, I was pleasantly surprised with what I managed. The girl had long departed from my side without a word and last I checked, she was leaning against one of the many trees as she looked over something in her hands.

Though there was still no sun and the air wasn't exactly warm, I still took advantage of letting it dry my skin when I sensed the girl walked up to me. I had no bothered to look at her, so I kept my sight straight ahead. All I wanted to do was take advantage of the fresh, open air before I was surely to be dragged back and locked inside the room. To my surprised, she sat down beside me.

" _Sakura_ ," I heard her say calmly.

I felt her nudge me on my side with her elbow, which I instinctively drew back as I glared at her. It was here when I noticed she pointed at herself with one of her gloved hands.

" _Sakura_ ," she pointed to herself again.

I blinked, more than a little confused at what was happening here. Again, she repeated the action but this time around she deliberately spoke it slowly as if she were pronouncing each letter. I moved my mouth as I tried the word within my head. Sakura. Sakura. The word sounded familiar to me though I couldn't figure out the purpose of it. As if she could read my mind, she pointed to herself again.

" _Sakura_ ," she looked at me expectantly, her short – and somewhat stylish – hair swayed a little with the breeze that came from behind us. I raised my own hand and pointed at her, "Sakura?" I repeated the word. With an awkward smile, she nodded at my response before she pointed at me. I then pointed at myself as I repeated the word but this only followed with a shake of her head as she saw this.

"Well, I have no idea what you're trying to say other than calling me Sakura," I responded.

" _Your name, what's your name? My name's Sakura._ "

Again with the pointing.

I looked down at my hands then back up at her. Her demeanor had changed, what could have possibly caused this? I'd even go as far saying she was being friendly? I haven't seen her smile – granted, an awkward one at that – nor laidback as I was now seeing. Apparently, this Sakura word did not mean 'me' as she had re-pointed at herself.

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. She wasn't trying to call me Sakura, she was telling me her name! With a curious look, I pointed at myself and voiced my name slowly.

"Ariadna."

"Arianna. _Interesting_ "

She – or should I say Sakura – would had pronounced my name correctly had she not forgotten the 'd' within it, even so, I nodded with a slight smile. Great, now we knew each other's names.

Now my question was, why the change in attitude? 


	10. Blue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Italics = Japanese

**Chapter 10 — Blue**

_There is no blue without yellow and without orange._

-Vincent Van Gogh

**ƸӜ̨Ʒ ƸӜ̨Ʒ**

**ƸӜ̨Ʒ**

* * *

I had never been in a situation where time ceased to exist.

I'd read about it from books where a character experiences a perfect moment, but it was their word against common knowledge. How does one go about measuring such a moment in time? Could it simply be compared to when a person is having fun and time passes by unaware that it had? Could it really be as simple as that?

_It had to be_ , I mused as I sat idly by the stream with my legs stretched out before me. I could feel the soft breeze caress my exposed skin. The crisp green grass that lay underneath me tickled my skin yet offered such a comfortable, natural cushion. My ears picked up the soft twittering of birds and the soft gurgling sound of the stream before me. Never in my life had I been in a situation like this, not even close. I was away from the noise of the city and the electronics that we, as humans, have taken for companions. This was so peaceful, such a perfect spot to take a nap. This moment was literally _perfect_.

Unfortunately, as life would have it, this was not a situation where I could take full advantage of it.

Had I been aware knowing my name would ceased Sakura's observing my every move like a hawk, I would had revealed it earlier. Even so, that is not to say that I was set free to roam on my own free will. While I was here, relaxing and soaking up the littlest rays of sunshine that managed to pierce the gray clouds, she stood by the tree where I left the cloak. I found it peculiar how she stared at the piece of clothing as if it were to be some kind of interesting object she had never seen before.

"Sakura!"

I whipped around to face her, expecting of her to react in some way considering the urgent call of her name. Instead, she appeared to be unmoved by the voice. Even so, I cautiously stood up just in case — I don't know, someone attacked?

The voice itself did not sound familiar, so it didn't take a wild guess that I would soon meet another wonderful cast member of this bizarre play. Lo' and behold, there he rushed in… or should I say out? Too preoccupied to take notice of me as a barrage of their language was spoken between the two.

Other than being clad in the colors of orange and black, I was surprised to see his clothes looked remotely _normal_ compared to the other three I had already met. As expected, I noticed the weird headband — this time the cloth material was black — with the metal plate and the strange symbol engraved into it. Just as you would expect with normality, his hair was nothing out of the norm other than being blonde.

After a quick exchange of words between them — clearly, Sakura having the stronger personality of the two —, my presence was acknowledged by Sakura's finger pointing in my direction.

It was interesting, really. I was not one to stare at a person for more than a couple of seconds — so as long as they weren't aware that I was — but today was a day of exceptions. It was only natural, right? Wear a costume and you will be bound to catch people's attention no matter how extravagant or simple the costume was.

And that's what this guy did.

It was not the clothes that made him stand out from the others nor his loud ways of communicating, no — it was nothing like that. It was a detail, if I could call it that. A slight one but nonetheless noticeable. It appeared to me that on his cheeks were faint whisker-like markings. Enough to catch my attention and apparently he took notice of this as he turned back to speak to Sakura in a quieter tone. Ha, as if I would be able to understand what they were saying.

They talked and talked. I managed to pick out my name amongst their conversation, the second time butchered up by the guy. There was no real reason why I needed to pay attention, they were both speaking too fast anyways. So I turned and faced the sky and with my eyes closed, I allowed myself to feel in the almost-serene atmosphere up until the guy suddenly butchered up my name again. I took a deep breath and turned to face them.

"It's pronounced as Ari-adna, not _Arena_."

While there was a high possibility that Sakura had mentioned that I wasn't exactly one of their _kind,_ he still managed to look dumbfounded. It didn't help that his confused look and surprisingly azure eyes made him look comical and for the briefest moment, I could not help but feel smug right at that moment.

It did not take him long to compose himself before he pointed in the direction he came from and with a string of words I did not care to comprehend, I watched as he expressed what must be his annoyance – something you could easily tell by the tone of a person's voice. No sooner did Sakura stepped in and once again the two ignored me as they spoke, or more likely, bickered.

"Ariadna," Sakura called with a wave of her hand. As there was nothing for me to do other than follow her like a lost puppy, I made my way towards them.

Now being much closer to him, he no longer looked as comical as before but peeved. Whatever it was that Sakura said to him had not settled well with him and so it did not take a wild guess that I was the likely cause of his annoyance. With a shrug on my part, I waited for whatever it was I needed to do next.

" _We have to head back, so get your cloak and follow us_ ," Sakura said as she signaled towards the cloak she had previously been absorbed in.

I looked between her and it. "Cloak? You're talking about the cloak?" I asked, mostly referring to the only thing that was worthy of any attention out here.

" _So you really are dumb, huh_?" He asked. I turned to him and so did Sakura. _"I thought she was just exaggerating!_ " He exclaimed, quite amused.

" _Naruto_ ," Sakura voiced, looking annoyed.

So, that was his name? Well, it wouldn't really surprise me considering all that I heard and seen. The name sounded strange enough and definitely foreign. Wouldn't hurt if I pronounced it, would it?

"Naruto."

He went quiet as I – once again – turned into the center of their attention. Since I wasn't all that fond of the silence that followed, I went on my merry way of a one-sided conversation. "Funny name, huh? Nah-ruh-toh." I finished with a wave of my finger, quite proud of myself for some bizarre reason.

He raised an eyebrow before he glanced over to Sakura, " _is this her way of doing things?_ " She nodded in response. He then turned back to me and just as Sakura had done earlier, he pointed at my direction, "Areh-na."

"No, it's Ari-ahd-na."

This time around, he pronounced it correctly. He grinned when I acknowledged this – which was only with a nod of my head.

" _Cloak_ ," Sakura called my attention as she once again pointed towards the direction of the cloak. Either the word itself meant cloak or attention, I couldn't tell but it was certainly something she wanted me to pay attention to. Nodding – which seemed to be the only way of me communicating with them – I went and fetched the aforementioned piece of clothing.

After I tugged the cloak off the branch, I threw it over me and was about to follow after Sakura when Naruto called out to me. I turned, unsure what it was he wanted as I was supposed to follow Sakura. Instead, I saw him holding out a golden-like necklace with a rather large, strange looking, pendant. I looked at it then at him, what was that?

" _You dropped this."_

I turned to look for Sakura but she was long gone from my view; actually, I could still see her colorful hair peeking amongst the trees but yeah, she was gone. I turned back to him. "What?" He looked thoughtful but to my surprise _and_ amusement, he mimed what he wanted to say. Actually, he looked a bit sheepish; it was the only way of him communicating and since Sakura wasn't around, that was the best way of doing things. Not that I could clearly communicate with him either.

From what I gathered – the necklace just so happened to have dropped from the cloak when I pulled it off the branch. At first I found it strange as I didn't remember ever feeling something while I had the cloak on, but after a quick search from the inside, I came across a deep pocket. Well, you couldn't really blame me for not knowing about it, after all, I just happened to have gone through a wide range of experiences in the last two days or was that three?

I looked down at the necklace then back up at him; technically, the necklace wasn't mine as it came from the cloak that I _believe_ I might _have_ stolen (it would explain my earlier experience with that... _stranger_ ). Perhaps, just _perhaps_ , there was that possibility the person wanted the cloak back because of the necklace that lay within its pocket and not because he wanted to harm me? That wou-

"Ariadna?"

I blinked and reached out for the jewel; the ornament was surprisingly heavy for its size as it was placed in my open palm. After a couple of words, Naruto nodded towards the direction where Sakura had disappeared, I nodded in return as I curled my fingers around the pendant.

* * *

Why had I not noticed this before?

Sure, the house was rather large and situated in an unlikely place – though I would not mind living amongst the trees – a great hiding spot from prying eyes. Hell, I was not paying much attention to my surroundings anyway as I needed to use the bathroom. But as we neared the spot we – Sakura and I – departed earlier from, it hit me that the architecture of the large wooden dwelling – not the same one I was locked in – was influenced by Asian architecture. Unless…

"What country is this?" I asked as I turned to Naruto. "China? Japan? Thai- no, I don't remember seeing buildings like that in those photographs…" I said loudly, quite unaware that Sakura was approaching with the other two members of the group. Just as I had done earlier, Naruto shrugged at what I said as he turned to the others.

I ignored their conversation as I stared in awe at the building; everything looked so authentic and while I never actually been to any of the aforementioned countries, I had seen enough pictures to know. Was the house – or something as close as I could call it – made completely out of wood? It certainly looked liked it. Instinctively, I took a step forward only to stop when I felt someone grasp my upper arm. I looked to see that it belonged to Naruto who was not the only one to be staring at me. I awkwardly smiled as I pointed towards the building, "I-yeah… wanted to see… " I muttered.

The other three stood across from us, Sakura, Sigh and the Nameless One.

Like Sigh, the Nameless One had a blank look on him but unlike Sigh, his eyes were clearly expressive. He was obviously the oldest one out of the group, if not the leader – as the other three were attentive to his presence as he spoke but not before calling out to Sakura. Like a flash of lightning — or was it out of instincts?— , I yanked my arm away from Naruto's grasp as a thought dawned on me.

_How the hell could I had missed that?!_

IF the building had been "influenced" by Asian architect, what was the possibility that one of the people had a name associated with a country? Sakura was definitely not a strange name and in fact associated with one _particular_ country...

"Holy shit," I exclaimed, stepping back from the group who were now looking at me in the most peculiar way. "I was right, huh? I mentioned Japan; are we in Japan?! How the hell did I end up here?" I gasped as I held my head between my hands.

This explained everything; their language that I could not comprehend but would explain why it sounds so hurried. Japanese, to my ears, is spoken quickly – I was only exposed to their language by the movies I had seen but that was only a few times. I wouldn't be able to quickly differentiate it from the other Asian languages to begin with.

This was definitely not good.

_Shit_ , this changes everything!


	11. Tricks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Italics = Japanese

**Chapter 11 - Tricks**

_In everything one thing is impossible: rationality._

\- Friedrich Nietzsche

**ƸӜ̨Ʒ ƸӜ̨Ʒ**

**ƸӜ̨Ʒ**

* * *

Take a deep breath; slowly breath in and then out…

Yes — good, wasn't it?

Okay, calm down and think this thoroughly…

So I was obviously located within a country that was not my own; somewhere where an abundance of nature as far as my eyes could see. Perhaps this was a national park or some other place out in the middle of nowhere but _all this_ was the least of my worries. What I _really_ wanted to know was — who were all these people? Could I even _call them human?_ Seriously, what could I call them? Yes, they looked human enough and while I could live with the idea that I stumbled across a group of people who enjoyed dressing up, this…. _this_ was too different, _this_ was not normal. Had I known it was magic, I would have been astounded by the feat and everything. But, no human could do what _that-that_ Nameless guy had done.

No. Freaking. Way.

After my realization — or should I say my freak out — of the country I was in, I could tell that everyone around me was weary of my being and the way I expressed myself to the point where Nameless had ordered Sakura to bind my wrists again. Unlike last time, I was completely aware of the situation and I full-on struggled against this. Unfortunately, as there was one of me and three of them, I was finally held by Naruto while Sakura did what she had to do and so it was here that things took a turn for the… _strange_.

They had talked amongst themselves as usual while being completely ignored. Once they finished their little meeting, Sakura walked towards my direction while Naruto and Sigh guy stood to the side as the Nameless guy walked towards the building. What happened next looked to be an everyday occurrence for the three of them, but I had never seen someone make a large building disappear into thin air. Well, more like into a _puff of smoke_. One second the building stood there, sturdy and imposing and the next it just… _disappeared_. I had observed how he used both his hands as he uttered something I couldn't — naturally — comprehend and just like that the whole building disappeared. There was no way my eyes had played a trick on me with such a bizarre sight. So, naturally, I did what was only _natural_. It was a miracle that I hadn't tripped time this around when I sprinted away only to be caught seconds later by Sakura's surprisingly strong grip.

Had Nameless been a magician, I would had _still_ been reluctant to accept what he did. This was no ordinary magic trick. Who's to say the other three didn't hold some kind of strange powers themselves? _Ugh_. The thought itself was enough to perturb me. Which was why I was more than compliant when they ordered me to follow Sakura – I was not eager to find out what these people were capable of doing and following orders was pretty much a safety guarantee. Plus, seeing as Sakura was the only female of the group, I felt much more comfortable being around her than the others.

Not that having her around was any help, either.

Walking shoeless for god-knows how long, not to mention my stomach grumbling for food and what appeared to be the beginning of a headache, everything was going quite smoothly for me. I hissed under my breath as I looked away from the unpaved road I was walking on and turned my sight to the greenery bush on my left; as Sakura was the only person with me, the other three had stayed behind, I – obviously – had no idea where we were going, but for certain we were not being waited on like before. Whether it was because we had been walking for some time or, as I previously had stated, walking shoeless, my feet were painfully sending me a message to stop and rest. Not to mention that I was getting awfully tired of seeing the same things around me. Trees, plants and grass. Repeat the same view, over and over again. The sky itself wasn't helping much as it was still cloudy from the earlier rain, though, I suppose I should be grateful that it wouldn't be raining any time soon.

I had not uttered a word since we departed from the grounds where I gracefully tried to make my escape. It also appeared that Sakura had taken her role seriously with her guarding duty this time around, as she had not undone my wrists and much less spoken a word to me. I suppose I should be grateful for the silent treatment – better not to awaken the sleeping dragon and all that.

Yet, I couldn't help but feel put-off by her change in demeanor.

"I'm hungry."

Our pace had not slowed down and Sakura had not acknowledged my statement.

I huffed, "well my feet are sore – can we take a break?" _Again_ , I was put on ignore.

Fine then, I stopped in my tracks.

Bingo.

" _What is it_?" She demanded, facing me straight on.

"Sure, like I can speak Japanese," I said before I did the universal signal of 'me-need-food'.

My hope rose a bit at the sight of seeing her dig through that strange side bag she carried around her waist, only to have it dashed away when I saw her pull out a familiar looking water bottle. I shook my head, "not water. Food. Nom-nom!" I chewed air, which only resulted in her shaking her head.

" _You're hopeless, really._ "

I sighed as I waved away whatever it was she had said before I turned around to see if I could see a squirrel or some other eatable animal. Surely, Sakura dressed in the way she was, knew how to start a fire and kill the thing.

" _Here_ ," I heard her say as she nudged my shoulder.

I turned around and noticed the small, green triangular _something_ she held in her hand. Once she noticed that I noticed what she held, she took hold of my bound wrists and placed the green, soft strange package between my hands. Whether it was because I stared at the thing or Sakura had realized her error, she took it back, unwrapped it and replaced it in my hands.

" _Once we get to the village, I'm sure you'll get something but this should do for now_."

Clearly, it was white rice albeit slightly sticky and molded into a rough triangle with something of a dark, green paper-thin strip at the bottom. I looked up to Sakura who was ever the observant and nodded, surely signaling for me to go right ahead and eat it.

"What exactly is this?"

_"If you're so hungry, eat it – we can't just wait around here and have you stare at it as if you've never seen onigiri before._ "

I was starting to wonder whether she was deeming me slow or just this unfortunate tourist who enjoyed being treated like a criminal. Because, while I couldn't understand a word she was saying, that tone in her voice was clearly condescending. So I looked down at the food in my hand, observing it as I felt the stickiness with the pad of my fingers. While I had no idea what it was, I could safely say that it reminded me of sushi – which was something I never eaten before. Clearly, this was evidence that I was in fact in Japan – or some other country that does the whole rice thing.

" _Let's get going, we still have ways to walk_."

As we continued our walk to some unknown destination, I inconspicuously smelled the rice triangle. Sure, I was incredibly hungry but – beggars can't be choosers, right? I took a tentative bite out of the triangle. Soft but firm, not all that tasteful and clearly of room temperature. The chewing was easy, so it took me less than a few seconds to down the whole thing. The little dark-green strip, which I was close to discarding, tasted what I could only assume seaweed would taste like. It did offer a bit of flavor to the rice triangle. Of course, it was not enough to quench my hunger.

There was no point in measuring time because there was no way to measure it; had the sun been out, I could have easily guessed whether it was morning, midday or late afternoon. Of course, that was not my case. What I could say was after some unmeasurable time, Sakura had finally led me towards a tree where I was allowed to sit and offered me her water bottle; I, not wanting to pee out in the wilderness, opted in drinking a sip instead. Seated against the tree's trunk, I finally inspected my legs; naturally, I had some bruising and scrapes and a cut on my right sole of my feet, which was the source of my annoyance all this time. Clearly, being barefooted in the wilderness was not recommended. I scoffed under my breath. Meanwhile, Sakura towered over me – keeping watch for godknowswhat. Seated where I was, I took notice of her strange, sandal-like black boots, which I had to admit I liked for its unusual style.

It wouldn't be for another while when I noticed Sakura went still and just as she was about to say a word, a man and woman appeared before us. While it wasn't as if they materialized out of thin air, their appearance was enough to cause me a fright.

What the hell... what kind of thing was _that_?!

As the three of them engaged with one another, I couldn't help but surreptitiously glanced between the two strange arrivals. The man was dressed in the same style as the Nameless man had been – in paramilitary clothing – and with the same headgear as the others; the woman dressed with what I could only describe as a gray bodysuit with some kind of fishnet fabric over it, wearing a dark-orange miniskirt topped with a tan overcoat. Unlike the man – who I quickly looked away from once I caught him looking down at me – the woman looked like a person not to cross with. She definitely had _that_ look about her. Considering my luck, she called my attention. I was about to reply with my own version of what I assumed to be a question, when Sakura stepped in.

What happened next, I'm not entirely sure. All I remembered was trying to stand up before a darkness descended over

* * *

**POV: Sakura**

To say she was not interested in the girl would be a lie.

Sakura was _very_ interested.

The girl – Ariadna – was an enigma and one she wanted to understand; well, to a point considering her rational side kept reminding her she could be nothing more than someone in disguise. A well-acted spy whose powers could not be measured and with an agenda considering how easily she had been captured. And with that reason alone, Yamato had sent word. They were to meet at a specified location where the girl would be taken in and processed.

Sakura's task was to take her from Point A to Point B.

It was a fairly easy task and one she had not expected to partake on her own; though the other three weren't too far behind. According to Yamato's reasoning, the girl responded to Sakura better and while the real reason wouldn't be known, the simplest fact could be that they were of the same age and gender. Even if that were not to have been the case, Naruto would _definitely_ have been the last person the girl would have been left with.

They were playing it safe with Sakura leading her to the dropping point.

The designated location wasn't more than just a thirty minute walk from where they last departed; and it certainly had given Sakura enough time to wonder about the girl.

With her strange reaction seeing Yamato's Wood Release, Sakura couldn't help but think the girl had never seen a jutsu before – which, when she really thought about it, was a bit ridiculous. That only led her to believe that somehow that simple action Yamato had created had triggered something within her. That _something_ being none other than fear. Which, in turn, would explain why the girl had put up a fight when Sakura tried to bind her hands afterwards. An action that was – honestly – not befitting for an Akatsuki member. Following that same thought pattern, she had noticed how the girl observed them as Sakura talked with any of her team members. She had noticed the apprehension in the girls' eyes, only to be quickly masked with an aloofness whenever they were near her.

Being on her own and with no one to talk with had certainly kept Sakura's mind active concerning her captive. While she had shared her ideas about the girl with the team, she couldn't help but fall back to one particular personal theory about the strange girl. What if the girl with a strange name was nothing more than an experiment, a lab rat of sorts? Hidden away from the world, it would explain why the girl looked at everything as if it were the first time she had ever come across it. Which in turn made her no more than another victim, though a dangerous one at that when she considered what happened when she tried to heal her...

Which was something she was not about to do in front of the two arrivals.

Anko Mitarashi was clearly confused by the sudden sight of their prisoner collapsing in front of them. "What the hell?"

"We did get the message about her...condition but we weren't aware she had been injured," Shinobu Mibu stated as he – unlike Anko – stood poised in the same spot they had arrived. Sakura shouldn't have been surprised seeing him here, after all he was part of The Force – Ibiki's team. Unlike the rest that belonged in the group, he was dressed in the standard Konoha shinobi outfit.

"Other than superficial wounds prior to Sai finding her, we haven't engaged in a fight." Sakura replied as she knelt down before Ariadna's unconscious slumped form. "What we have learned is transfusing _any form_ of chakra into her is not recommended," she revealed as she placed two fingers against the girl's neck, sensing her strong pulse, "other than being out of the norm, she's very much alive – just unconscious."

"What exactly is going on here, then?" Anko asked as she re-aligned herself with Shinobu's stance. "Because she clearly couldn't activate a chakra absorption technique without any chakra if that's what you're implying now."

Sakura stood up, "My guess is as good as yours as to why she fainted; I'm pointing there's no need to use any chakra on her – it's not recommended and not for her benefit."

"Clearly so, so it shouldn't be a problem taking her back to headquarters," Shinobu added as he stepped towards the girl. "Whatever she is, whoever she works for – we'll find out."

Sakura did not doubt that at all.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
